Teaching Darkness: Memories
by Rae Logan
Summary: Part 5 in the Teaching Darkness series. Mephiles has gained a new ability... and he wishes more than anything that he didn't have it... Even worse, Dark has come back... but he's asking for Mephiles' help to defeat someone more powerful than himself...
1. Chaos and Visions

Okay... I had a great idea for a main story I just had to start. I just know you'll like it :D

So, as of now: I'm bringin' Mephil-angst back! Woo! Have fun, everyone (especially you, T.A.R.N.S! I know you love the angst.)

Oh, and thank you to everyone who helped make "Teaching Darkness: Relapse" a hit. 65 reviews makes it more popular than not only the first story, but all the others. Thank you!

* * *

A month after Mephiles (now called Mephiles the Hedgehog, no longer wanting _any_ connection with his former tormentor…) was free from Dark (As well as the time he obtained numerous injuries, many of which were healed over by now, save for his ankle and the slight soreness of his wrist…), Mephiles had gained somewhat of a new attitude towards life, positive, because of what had and had nearly happened. He was now free to be more carefree without that little dark shadow of bad feeling in the back of his mind, which had once seemed to constantly plague him nearly every waking moment, even when he didn't tell them if it did or not.

Since the final fight with Dark, Mephiles had also become a bit more confident in the abilities he had, as well as the few that had surfaced during his harassment from Dark.

Foot still injured, he had decided to abandon the crutches for a while, and take up using his hovering skill that seemed so scarce of a power usage to him in recent days. He enjoyed the fact that he could use it quite leisureably, and as such, he used it when he was "just kicking it…" (A term he picked up from Rae).

"Only three sides, huh?" Rae said as she was watching him try to figure out a Rubik's Cube. She was looking up slightly as she sat on the floor. She was hanging around, a now typical weekend thing.

"Oh, and I suppose you've figured out more?"

"Not really, I can't do these things for crud. I have one at home, but it's a cheap generic swap meet one, as it's a bit shattered in the middle, so it falls apart before I can get very far…" She explained, pulling the said cube out of one of her tails, which looked just about how she described. "I've only got as far as two sides before this shatters, so I dunno if I can. My brother and I each got one of these years ago to see who could solve it, and he won. I knew someone who could solve it in less than a minute…" She added.

"Really? How?"

"I dunno…" She scratched Jak behind the ears, who hung his tongue out as he wagged his half bald tail quickly. "But it was pretty cool to watch during English class."

"English?"

"Not really a language class… it's another name for Literature, which is the study of certain stories that are important for us to know…"

"Such as?" Mephiles grew bored of the cube and tossed it halfheartedly onto the couch.

"Are you familiar with 'Beowulf'?"

Shake head.

"Romeo and Juliet?"

"I've seen some parodies…"

"Macbeth?"

"Isn't the name of that cursed play?"

"I don't really believe in curses…"

"Yet you work at the comic shop with that… _thing…_"

"Hey… first off, I help out, secondly… T.D. isn't a thing… he's a… a…"

"Thing…"

"Pretty much…

"I win…"

"No… _I _win…"

"How?"

"Cuz I'm cool like that…"

"True…"

"You win…"

"How?"

"Cuz _you're _cool like that…"

Suddenly, Rae and Mephiles just broke out into laughter, the Rubik's Cube now long forgotten.

Almost…

"You're never gonna solve that, are you?"

"Nope… I think I'll just keep it like that so it looks like a jumbled mess…"

"Sounds like a plan…"

"So, do you guys have anything planned today?"

"Such as?"

"I dunno… just something I guess. You really need to get out more."

"Why?"

"Well, if you spend too much time indoors, the sun's really gonna hurt your eyes…"

"How badly?"

"You just want to yell…"

"I see… I don't want that to happen…"

"So do something today. It's not even noon yet, so you have plenty of time."

"Like what?"

"Why not a Chao Garden? There's one in Westopolis, and it might be nice for Krystal and Sharpe to meet other Chaos."

"Chao Garden?"

"Yeah, I been around one recently. It's a nice little place with trees full of fruit that Chaos love, and Chaos love to play around there. There's supposed to be stuff for every attribute they have, and you can leave your Chaos there for the day if you need to be somewhere."

"So, it's like a Chao Daycare?"

"Pretty much. There's also a 'Kindergarten', where they can take classes to learn new fun stuff."

"Like?"

"Drawing, singing, dancing, and even how to play instruments."

"That sounds nice…"

"Okay… let's ask Shadow and Rouge…" She said, slipping on her sandals, having ditched normal shoes after graduating.

* * *

Mephiles was in total awe of the Garden. Chaos of all colors, ages, sizes and styles were all over. Some had quills like the blue hedgehog, one looked like Shadow, some had horns, others had things on their heads much like Krystal, and many had animal attributes, such as ears like rabbits, whiskers like otters, and even wings like birds.

"What kinda animal did this one see?" He asked pointing to a white Chao with a dark blue halo. It had a purple scaly tail, purple and green bat-like wings, yellow horns, clawed purple hands and arms, and was breathing fire onto a fruit before sitting to eat it. Obviously, it liked its food to be warm.

"That's Ajax, and he's been around a dragon." Rae said, smiling before she whistled. The Chao spotted her and churred excitedly before hurrying over to her, before tripping and landing on his face, his emotion dot a spiraling twister. He got back up and shook his head before running again. Jak took a playful running start at him, only to have the Chao jump and beat his wings briefly to jump over him, then landed in front of Rae with a skidding halt on his front, smiling at her. "He's one of mine."

"Where did you get a _dragon?_" Mephiles asked, sitting down carefully, setting his crutches down beside him.

"Found it on the streets. Small little guy. He left after a while, but he hung around Ajax all day."

"You have Chaos, Rae?" Shadow said, handing a fruit to the Shadow Chao, who began munching at it happily. This was obviously his.

"Only two. I got 'em last month."

"How come you didn't tell us?" Rouge said, petting the Shadow Chao on the head, who was purring and nuzzling his head against her hand.

"Well, I wanted to make sure they were nice enough to be around Krystal and Sharpe before I let you know."

"Who's the other one?" Mephiles said, looking for any Chaos with any of Rae's traits.

"This one." Rae pointed out a dark looking Chao with purple accents. He had fiery looking wings of feathers, and a matching marking design on his forehead, as well as a medal on his chest. His emotion dot was a spiky purple ball. He was snoozing under the shade of a tree, hugging a plush blue hedgehog.

"What's his name?" Mephiles said, wondering just how many things that hedgehog sold his image to.

"Sykes. He's a dark Chao because he ate a buncha dark fruit when I wasn't looking. He's been around a phoenix… Found that in a cage. She left after a couple of days."

"Dark Chao?"

"He's supposed to be the kind you might find that Egg-guy with, but he loves just about anyone. He's the best outta the two as far as skills go. He's never lost a race, and he loves to swim, but he's actually a speed Chao."

"He's… cute…" Mephiles said a bit skeptically. "I didn't think you were able to get a dark Chao…"

"Any one can if you get the fruit, or if you're a bad person…" A nearby rabbit told him, holding her own Chao, who seemed normal, but had a red bow tie. "But if her other Chao is a hero Chao, then it's likely her Chao got into the dark garden…"

"That your Chao?" Mephiles asked the rabbit, gesturing to the Chao in her arms. She nodded.

"I've had him for as long as I can remember. His name's Cheese and he's got a brother, too. His name's Chocola. Chocola's somewhere around here…" She looked around, but didn't seem to find him. "He must have wandered into the hero garden again…"

"My Chaos are siblings, too." Mephiles smiled, motioning for his to come over to where he was sitting. "They're twins actually. Hatched from the same egg."

"Really? That must make them very special! I've heard of that happening, abut I've never seen twin Chaos!"

"The one with the eggshell on her head is Krystal, and the other one is Sharpe. I've never really seem Krystal with the shell off, because she hatched with it one. I bet she looks just like Sharpe though."

"What's your name?"

"Mephiles the Hedgehog."

"I'm Cream the Rabbit." The rabbit nodded as Cheese climbed his way up one of the trees to knock down a fruit to eat. "How old are your Chaos?"

Mephiles thought about it. Taking the math into consideration, he gave his estimate.

"About a season. Three months."

"They're young…"

"Yep. I got them as a bit of a… therapy thing…"

"What happened?"

"Something… pretty bad happened to me, so my friends got me the egg in hopes that it'll make me feel better."

"Did it?"

"I'd say so. I just love 'em!" He smiled, wrapping an arm around Krystal, who had clamped onto him when a fruit fell from the tree the hedgehog and the rabbit where sitting under. She buried her eggshell hidden face into his side, obviously a bit startled. He rested his other hand on her head to calm her down, and then took a glance around to find Sharpe in a tree with Sykes, trying to knock down fruit for Ajax, Cheese and the other Chaos in the garden to eat. "Funny, never seen Sharpe get along with anything like that right away…" He added.

"Chaos are pretty social, they love the company of other Chaos." Cream explained, watching them, too.

Mephiles felt Krystal tug at him, causing him to look down at her. She looked at him with a bit of a worried look before directing her gaze at a sad looking little Chao.

Mephiles stared at this one with a bit of interest. This one also looked like Shadow, but unlike Shadow, it had greenish markings, much like the kind Mephiles once had when he looked like Shadow. The Chao was whimpering, until it finally started crying, tears falling down its face as it gave no effort in hiding its tears.

"What's wrong with that one?" Mephiles pointed to sad Chao, Krystal leaving Mephiles' side cautiously and making her way over to it.

"That's Kai…" Rae's voice sounded above him. Mephiles and Cream turned their heads up to find Rae hanging upside down from one of the low hanging branches of the fruitless tree shading them, her tails wrapped around it to give her more support as her dog tag slipped off. "Crud… can you hand me that please? It's a gift from my brother."

Mephiles picked up the dog tag and paused a moment to study it. It had a stylized bird of some kind, perhaps an eagle or some other bird of prey, with the words "AIR FORCE" in the middle. Two words, one on the top and one on the bottom, read "PROUD SISTER" on it.

"I see your brother must be doing well over there, huh?" He added as he handed it to her. "Anyway, about Kai, what's wrong with him?"

"Oh…" Rae stuffed the dog tag into one of her tails to not lose it. "Kai's an abandoned Chao. He's been left here for about a couple of months apparently, and no one's come to pick him up. Apparently, he's a bit of a cry baby, and because of that, no one wants him…"

"Can he be adopted?"

"I think so, after two… months… pass… oh! Yeah! I think he can!"

Mephiles watched Krystal roll a fruit slowly over to Kai, who looked up at her, watching her carefully. She nudged it closer to him, telling him that it was for him.

For a moment, the Chao's eyes lit up and he took a bite and pushed it towards Krystal, saying: "Chao Chao!"

Krystal took a bite and pushed it back, and until the end of the fruit was reached, the two took turns.

"Krystal seems to have a new friend…" Mephiles said. "You say he can be adopted?"

"I think so…"

"So, let's check out what we can do. He seems to like Krystal, and oddly, I see a bit of myself there…"

"Sounds like a plan. He looks like a cutie…"

As the day stretched on, Mephiles watched how his Chaos were doing with the others.

Sharpe played a ball chasing game with Sykes, Cheese, Ajax and several other unnamed Chaos, Sykes showing off his incredibly high skills in speed and agility. From what could be seen, two trees were used for goals, and the even numbers of Chaos made it easy to split into teams of four; Sykes, Sharpe, Ajax and Cheese on the same team.

Krystal and Kai spent their time doing other things. Kai shared a toy car he had with her and for some of the time; they played with that, rolling it back and forth. Later, Kai showed Krystal how to swim a bit, using one of the buoyant fruits as a flotation thing for her. By the end of the time there, she was able to keep her head for a while and float for a while before paddling her way to the edge to hold on there.

"More like a boyfriend…" Rae added after a while, having long fallen out of the tree on her back, and smiling at the two. "He's a keeper. He looks after her… he shares… and he's a bit of a gentleman. He's a gem, right there."

"Then it's settled… I'll see if I can get him." Mephiles nodded, getting up carefully, leaning his weight into one of the crutches to balance himself. "Can you hand me the other one, please?" He gestured to the other crutch.

Within hours, the group was leaving as the sun started to hide behind the buildings, a new member to the group.

Kai seemed greatly pleased to be leaving the garden, having spent nearly sixty straight days there. He hugged his arms around Mephiles' neck, riding on his back as Krystal and Sharpe rode on his shoulders.

* * *

Having had an entire day of play, the Chaos were all napping curled up on an end of the couch, Kai resting his head on Sharpe as Krystal curled up next to him. In Sharpe's tiny clawed hands was the toy Mephiles Rae had made, which was now completely dried and hardened.

"He seems to have settled in quite nicely…" Mephiles said, nodding towards Kai. "Can't imagine why someone would just leave him…"

"Possibly the same reason Jak was left on the streets…" Shadow said, Rae and Jak having already left for home, as it was getting dark outside. "Could be anything… and we don't know what."

"Well… at least he's got a home…"

"True…"

Pause.

"Can you help me up? I need to… uh… do stuff…" Mephiles added with a bit of a blush of slight embarrassment from his slightly helpless state he was in currently.

"Sure…"

Shadow grabbed him by the wrist and started to pull him up, Mephiles catching onto Shadow's arm with his other hand.

Then something strange happened.

Mephiles blinked for a moment before his eyes glazed over, a half tired expression washing over his face.

"Meph?" Shadow said, instantly knowing that in his experience of living with Mephiles for nearly a year, that that wasn't a good thing. "Mephiles? Are you alright?"

The hedgehog he was holding up was mumbling something under his breath, possibly having not heard him.

Shadow shook a hand in front of his face, and received no reaction. He flicked him on the ear, an action that normal gained a death stare… and still nothing.

What was going on? This wasn't an absence seizure, because he never made a sound during them.

Mephiles had shut his eyes and was shaking his head slowly from side to side, the muttering under his breath becoming more frantic, as if he was scared. Some of the words were becoming clearer as he spoke louder.

"… _Hurry up… don't slow down… don't slow down… run faster… don't let go… I've got you… don't worry… keep running…_"

Something about the words struck something in the back of Shadow's mind sharply. Very familiar, they were…

"Mephiles?" Shadow lifted his free hand and planted it on his fellow hedgehog's shoulder, giving him a light shake.

"… _No… please don't… leave her alone… it's not her you want…_"

"_Mephiles?_" Shadow said a bit more urgently, noticing that Mephiles' hold on his arm was starting to tighten, digging his claws into his arm somewhat painfully, causing Shadow to wince a little. "Meph… wake up…"

"_No!_" Mephiles was now speaking loudly, still out of it and still in his little dazed trance. "_Don't! Leave her alone! _MARIA!"

The last thing caused Shadow to freeze and widen his eyes. What was going on? What was Mephiles seeing? He remembered him having the ability to see things through dreams almost five months ago. Did he have other psychic abilities he had yet to discover? He recent found out a couple of new ones during his time plagued by Dark… so it wasn't too crazy of a thought. A lot his abilities seemed to rely on his mind, so…

Shadow was pulled swiftly out of his thoughts when Mephiles' hand tightened harder on his arm, Mephiles' head lowered as he shook, the poor hedgehog in tears, sobbing and taking no effort to hold them back.

"… _It's my fault… all my fault…_" He was whispering, on the verge of collapsing right there.

Shadow carefully pried his hand off his arm and eased him back onto the couch, letting go of his wrist. Immediately, Mephiles came back to reality with a harsh gasp of fright, visibly shaken.

"Mephiles… what just happened?"

Mephiles stared blankly for a moment, before quickly dissolving back into his weeping, bringing his hands to his head and working his fingers into his quills and fur.

"What _happened?_" Shadow asked again, concern building up as the question remained unanswered for a while longer.

Mephiles inhaled sharply, hiccupping as he moved his hands down to cover his face, shaking his head as if he didn't want to believe what he saw.

"Oh, Sh-(hic)-Shadow… Oh, (hic) God! I'm s-s-so (hic) sorry!" He stammered between hiccups, shaking even worse. "I s-saw it all! (hic) They _shot_ her (hic)! They sh-(hic)-shot her just bec-(hic)-cause she was t-t-(hic)-trying to help you!"

"You… saw it?"

"I d-(hic)-dunno how… but (hic) I was… it was like… (hic) like I was you, or s-something… (hic)" Mephiles' hiccupping was making it a little difficult to understand him, but Shadow was sure he heard him right.

"Whatever it was… It's over now…" He tried to reassure him, Mephiles staring at him wide eyed and teary faced, his pale muzzle darkened from tear trails and he was now hiccupping every few seconds. "C'mon… let's figure out how to get rid of these hiccups…"

He knew that several remedies were just silly sounding, so maybe they would cause Mephiles to smile even slightly. When he got sad, it usually spiraled down into such a depression, that it worried everyone, so that was something they wanted to avoid. When he was upset and even hysterical, sometimes his powers sparked off and there had been several close calls as far as both injuries and shattered items went (though some things had been destroyed, several Mephiles was unaware of because it had been kept secret.).

Mephiles nodded numbly, half in a daze as he tried to run through what he had seen through his mind. He couldn't get far with these hiccups, however and let himself be led to the kitchen and to a chair at the table.

"Okay… there are a lot of 'home remedies', many based on different reactions people have." Shadow explained, fishing a glass out of the dishwasher and drying it off before he filled it with water and ice. "Here." He set it down in front of Mephiles, and pushing it forward. "Let's try drinking from the far end of the glass."

"… f-f-(hic)-far end?" Mephiles looked up at him. He didn't quite understand what he meant.

"Just drink from the end farthest from you."

Mephiles stared at the glass for at least a minute, his fingers drumming on the table nervously.

"Sh-(hic)-Shadow… I don't th-think I can (hic) do that…" He said after a minute passed, resting an arm against his stomach for his other arm to rest on as he brought his other hand to his forehead, letting his eyes drift shut for a moment, silent, save for the frequent hiccup. He started his explanation. "… (hic) If I tried… no mat-(hic)-ter which end I choose… the one opposite (hic) is _always_ the farthest end… it's a (hic) fail either way…"

"Okay… fine…" Shadow pulled a large jar out of the pantry and grabbed a spoon and set them down in front of Mephiles. "Spoonful of sugar… try that."

"(hic) Can I not? I'm st-(hic)-starting to feel sick… I think I need to lay down (hic hic)…"

Shadow noticed the pale muzzle slowly taking on a shade of white, Mephiles' fur was damp and he just couldn't stop shaking enough to sit up properly.

"Please, Shadow? I (hic) don't feel well right now…" Mephiles gave him a half pleading look before shifting his eyes to his feet.

"Okay…" Shadow led him back to the couch carefully, Mephiles leaning against him for support. Mephiles eased himself into a comfortable position on his side, curling up slightly, letting his eyes drift shut again. "Let me know if you need anything…" Shadow added.

"Uh, huh…" Mephiles muttered, already half out. "Yeah, (hic) I'll be sure to do that…"

Within minutes, he was asleep.

Shadow watched him closely, thinking about what had happened earlier. If he had to go out on a limb, he'd say that Mephiles somehow accessed his memories.

How? He didn't know. Why? Same comment.

Shadow hoped Mephiles was going to be fine. But then again, if what Shadow was thinking was right, Mephiles had witnessed the death of Maria from Shadow's eyes, seeing just as he had.

Mephiles was already sensitive about death and related matters, so it was possible that this might have him on edge for a while.

As Shadow had predicted, with the images of that fresh in his mind, Mephiles' dreams were becoming troubled. A whimpered escaped the still hiccupping hedgehog, his face showing sickened fear as he whispered pleadingly under his breath. A hand clenched against his stomach tightly, and Shadow hurried off to find an empty trashcan for the poor hedgehog to throw up in if he needed to, not able to run off to the bathroom because of his injured foot.

* * *

Okay. So end of Chapter one. Mephiles seems to have seen something that he didn't want to see. With the memories Shadow has, who can blame him?

As for the Chaos, all of them are ones from my Sonic Adventure 2: Battle garden. My best is Sykes... he came with the memory card (got it used). He started as a Shadow Chao, but he's reincarnated. Ajax I hatched myself, and Kai came with that card. He's often crying, but he's a cutie overall. He loves his toy car.

So, I guess Kai's part of the family now, huh? :D


	2. In My Head

Okay, I was having a bit of writers block here, but it should be fine.

This chapter features a very special feature I have yet to use in a main story... I bet you can figure it out :D

Oh... and I went to Comic-Con for the third year in a row this Sunday! Among the other stuff, my Sonic realted new things are:

A Sonic X lanyard

STH Issue 158 Signed by Ken Penders (Later also signed by Ron Lim, the artist, who I found elsewhere at the convention :D )

Knuckles The Echidna Issue 25 also signed by Ken Penders

Official Original Character print signed by Ken Penders

Original Comic Page from STH Issue 58 hand colored by Ken Penders

The cutest Chibi Knuckles Plushie I have ever seen! I can't find anything to complain about with it too. The "sculpting" for the face, dreads and body are superb. I belive it's from Japan! :D

Well... hope you like this chapter.

* * *

Amazingly, Mephiles managed to endue the entire night without having to wake up once, though Shadow suspected that it was a rough night all the same.

Once he woke up in the morning, Mephiles hardly talked, and spent most of the day staring at Shadow, before closing his eyes and looking away with a sigh, seemingly at a loss for words.

Rogue, having not been there when the incident happened last night, began to suspect that something was up almost immediately.

"What's wrong with Mephiles?" She said once Mephiles disappeared from the kitchen with a snap of the fingers and a flash of purple Chaos energy the moment Shadow sat down at the table. "He hasn't said much anything this morning…"

"Something… happened last night… I think he's upset…"

"What happened?"

Shadow took a deep breath for a moment as he wondered how to explain this. He didn't quite understand it himself. He sipped his tea and set it down, briefly scooting the mug to the side to lean forward with an arm on the table.

"Last night, Mephiles saw something…"

"What?"

"I think he saw Maria's death…"

Rouge raised her eyebrows in surprise, widening her eyes as well. Taking a quick look around, she leaned forward as well and said quietly: "_How?_"

"I'm not sure. I was helping him stand up and it started about the time he grabbed my arm."

"What happened?"

"It was scary. First, he went into some kind of trance and was mumbling something. A long stream of words. I couldn't get him to snap out of it at first. He just kept staring, and his eyes were wide."

"How do you know he saw it..?"

"Then he was getting more frantic, and was speaking a bit clearer. What he was saying was exactly what I said. Then he screamed her name and started crying… my arm almost went numb because he kept squeezing my arm tighter as it kept on. He didn't snap out of it until I got him back on the couch and pried him loose."

"How was he after it?"

"A mess. He was crying even harder, so much, that he had some really bad hiccups afterwards. He was having problems sleeping later as well. He was out all night, but he was probably having some bad dreams."

"So he's avoiding you."

"I think so. I don't think he wants to talk about it… God, this is not good…"

"Hmm?"

"He's had enough bad things happening to him that he doesn't need to see the bad things that happened to other people. Can you imagine the things that could arise from this?"

"Nothing good, I can guess…"

"Exactly." Shadow picked up his mug of tea and took another sip. "From what I can tell, he saw it just as I did. He said that it was like he was me at that moment. So he saw everything…"

Mephiles was listening just outside the doorway, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. He slid down a bit with an unheard sigh, bringing his finger across his face until his head rested in his hand.

Things had been going great, it had seemed. And now he had a new ability that he didn't know how it worked. More over… he didn't even _want_ it.

His mind felt odd now. Not only were his own thoughts in his head, but it felt like parts of Shadow's thoughts were there as well, trying to push forward and make themselves be known.

It was just so bizarre how it had felt, seeing into Shadow's mind like that. It had felt, for that moment, that _he_ had been Shadow…

…

…

The cold hallways. The sound of his heavy breath and another's as he pulled a young girl by the hand. Leading her. _Guiding_ her down the halls as heavy footsteps echoed behind them. His side starting to hurt from running, but he kept on, trying to protect this girl. He looked at her, taking in the worry that was in her eyes. Wide, luminous sapphire-blue eyes. Innocent. Naïve. Youthful. Something that he'll never forget…

…

…

Mephiles snapped awake with a snort, shaking his head forcefully to try to clear it. These were not his memories, and they had no right to be in his head.

He strained his ears to listen in on the now hushed conversation Shadow and Rouge were holding, both of them completely unaware of his presence.

"We have to get him to talk about it." He heard Rouge's voice say. "If he doesn't, this could end up like what happened when he lost his mind about three months ago…"

Mephiles felt his heart skip a few beats. Rouge was referring to when Mephiles had first cracked from his trauma and ended up in such a state, he had problems distinguishing reality from what he saw.

His mind was still a bit fuzzy from that, but he understood the main of what had happened: He tried to run away, and in the process, nearly hurt Shadow. He knew he had also bit Shadow on the hand, and learned eventually that his actions could have killed himself, as apparently Shadow had pulled out of the way of a moving truck.

He had mixed feelings about that however, because if it hadn't happened… he would have never gotten Krystal and Sharpe, because they were part of his healing from that.

"But he either doesn't like talking about his feelings or tries to hide them from us…" Shadow reasoned. "I think he's scared about what we'll think."

"He's scared of what _you'll_ think, Shadow…"

"_Me?_"

"Yes. He's always worried about what you'll think of him. If something happens, he's always telling me: 'Don't tell Shadow…' and 'He's gonna laugh at me, huh?'…"

"Like what?"

Mephiles inhaled sharply, holding his breath for what Rouge might say.

"Well, a lot of things."

"Such as?"

"I can't tell you. I told him I wouldn't. If he wants you to know, he'll say when he's ready."

Mephiles let out his breath slowly. Part of him was pleased that Rouge kept the promises, the other part was now annoyed that Shadow was aware of the concept of these things.

…

…

He was pounding his hands on the glass that separated him from the girl. It was all around him, trapping him inside. It seemed like no one could hear him as he screamed her name, helplessly watching her fall to the ground as shots were fired…

…

…

Mephiles pulled himself out of that one sharply, taking it upon himself to slap his hand into his face to make sure. Involuntarily, he yelped in pain then clapped a hand over his mouth.

He waited anxiously, knowing he had no doubt been caught. He twitched his ears and waited…

"We know you're there now, Mephiles…" He heard Rouge say gently, as if she was trying not to scare him. "There's no need to be scared, and you don't need to hide…"

Not knowing if this was an invitation to come out or simply a question of acknowledgement, Mephiles remained silent, but cautiously peered around the corner, still keeping mostly hidden behind the wall. When he saw Shadow, he gasped and ducked back, hiding from view again.

He heard Shadow sigh. "I figured as much…"

Mephiles sank lower to the ground, his ears held out to the side as he traced a finger across the carpet, leaving "scratches" in the threads. He stared at the door on the other side of the room, hardly blinking.

Before long, and without even looking, he knew that Rouge and Shadow had left where they were sitting and now knelt down beside him.

Trying hard to avoid eye contact, he remained silent until finally he said something that had been on his mind since the incident the night previously.

"… Why is it always me?"

"It's not always you…" Shadow said.

"Stop lying. It's _always_ me."

"I think you're over reacting a little…"

"Who out of us have been kidnapped?" Mephiles said quite coolly, still not looking at him. "How about electrocuted? Drowned? Dead? How about plagued by a demonic version of yourself? Now I have this… thing that'll let me see what's in your head…"

"Well… it can't be all bad…"

"I don't _want_ it!" Mephiles snapped his head to the side to stare at Shadow fiercely, clenching his teeth together in a half attempt at baring them. "I don't want _any_ of it! I just want to be normal, as normal as I can possibly be! I just want it all to stop and leave me alone! I want to not have these problems! _Why is it always me?!_" He looked away quickly, starting to avoid staring at Shadow again. He blinked a few times, closed his eyes and lowered his head. "… I just want to be normal…" He said quietly.

"That'd be hard. What is 'normal' to you?"

"I don't know. Not me, I guess…"

"But, if you were 'normal'… you wouldn't be you…"

"Exactly…" Mephiles nodded slowly. "Right now… I don't want to be me. I don't want to be anything right now but left alone…"

"You… want us to leave?"

"Just for right now… I need space and time to think."

"Well… okay then." Shadow said, standing up. "But, please let us know if you need anything, okay?"

Mephiles simply nodded slowly before saying: "I suppose I need a bit of help getting up. Preferably to the couch, please…"

"Okay…"

Within minutes Mephiles was half leaning against the armrest of the couch, half lying down as he mulled things over in his head, trying to sort his thoughts out.

As requested, he was left alone…

* * *

It's a waking nightmare of darkness for me. I see it, again and again… forever repeating… never ending, it seems…

With nothing to keep my mind distracted other than this darkness, my mind wanders and I start to see things… I start to see things shaping themselves before my eyes… replaying my first memories… clear as if they were just happening again…

That day… when I became aware that I existed… my sight was met with something I could not hope to forget, no matter how hard I try to push it back…

Because of me… because of what gave me life… lives were taken as well…

I saw them. And I cannot forget that…

As I breathe… they breathe no more…

I wanted to get out… to get away from all of that, so I fled. But not far, as I was chased and cornered by a black and red hedgehog, who's quills upturned in the most unusual fashion.

I don't know what I did wrong. It wasn't my fault! I didn't even know I existed until a little while ago… how could I have even meant to do that? Please… I didn't… it wasn't my fault!

…

…

I have been trapped… and I don't know why… and now… thoughts are racing in my head… bouncing around the walls of my mind… it's making me dizzy…

I sit down, a hand to my head as I try to collect my thoughts… but they keep straying away… they keep leading me back to where I don't want to go… they pull at me… it's suffocating… it's making my head hurt… it's giving me a headache…

Pressing two fingers to my forehead at a pressure point to ease it away, I wish that it would do the same for my thoughts…

This is all that hedgehog's fault.

He's the reason I'm here… and I don't even know anything about him but his name and how he looks…

Hardly… my mind is so fogged up right now, that I can barely keep his form in my mind… he's black, I know that… but where was the red on him? Did he have something around his wrists and ankles, or did I just imagine it?

…

…

_Rings…_

What?

_He had Rings…_

Who are you?

_I'm you…_

Impossible…

_How so?_

How could I be talking to myself? That makes no sense…

_It does if you're alone for too long. You have no one but yourself… I'm just the part of you that feels the need to answer your questions…_

That… sort of makes sense… I guess… But, why show up now?

_You need to deviate your mind from what you don't want to see, right?_

Yes…

_Then why not?_

Why not have shown up before now?

_I don't know how this works…_

Me neither… If you answer questions… then why am I trapped here?

_Because of that hedgehog… He's bad…_

But… he said I was the bad one… is _that_ true?

_No. _

Then why did he trap me?

_Because he's bad…_

Why is he bad? Was it something I did?

_No… _

What's your name?

_What's _your _name?_

I don't have one…

_Neither do I… _

What do I call you, then?

_What do you _want_ to call me?_

I dunno… I didn't think about it…

_We'll name each other then… How does "Mephiles" sound?_

… Kinda odd…

_How so?_

Has a "fff" in the middle and a bit of a hiss at the end… It's… odd to say… Mefffilessss… Ssss…see what I mean?

_So, you don't like it?_

I didn't say that… what I meant was that it's… different… how did you come up with it?

_I made it up…_

Oh… okay… Then "Mephiles" it is.

_Now it's your turn…_

Okay… well… since all I really know is darkness… why not call you "Dark"? I can't see you, but that's all I can really see…

_I like it… kind of… mysterious… enigmatic, really… _

I like the sound the "K" makes… kuh… Dar-kuh… kinda sharp sounding.

_Fascinating… _

I like it!

…

…

I guess at the time, I was to naïve to understand the tone underneath his voice.

Urgh… that voice… I don't believe I'll ever truly get it out of my head. How can I? It's my own… but it's also not. Does that make sense? I hope so, because I cannot explain it any further…

I remember being thrilled. Dark was my friend…. Or so I thought. I regret ever even clapping my hands with excitement upon believing he was even my… I… don't even want to finish that sentence…

Why am I remembering this _now?_ Where were these memories before now? Locked away, maybe? Hidden from me, perhaps? But why? And… how? And why are they coming back?

…

…

Dark? What's going on?

…

Dark? I need help… I think I'm losing it…

…

Dark! I keep blacking out! I can't remember some of the stuff I've done or were doing! What's _wrong_ with me?!

…

_Dark!_ Where are you?!

…

_DARK!_

…

…

…

That was the first sign… I should have known… I should have figured it out… But I was too stupid then… He was poisoning my mind. Twisting it without my knowledge. Bending it to his liking. Making me nothing more than a puppet to his plans.

He wasn't me… he wasn't me at all. He lied… he lied to me…

He was the puppet master… the master string puller… the builder of the world he made me see… the world he made me live in while he took over my mind.

And…

I suspected nothing…

How could I?

He made it to where I couldn't…

He made it believable…

And I fell for it…

Like the idiot I was… I fell for it!

…

…

_It's Shadow you hate…_

Sh-shadow?

_Yes… Shadow the Hedgehog. He's the reason you're stuck in this accursed scepter. I want you to visualize him. Can you keep a clear image in your head?_

I-I think so… Dark? Where were you earlier? I was calling out your name… but you didn't say anything…

_Oh? You did? Oh, I'm sorry… I was busy…_

With what?

_It'd bore you… Sorry about that… Can you make a clear image of that hedgehog?_

I think so. Black with red marking… red eyes… rings on his wrists and ankles, odd looking shoes… white patch of fur on his chest. Why?

_Never forget that face… he was the one who condemned you here…_

I don't think I _can_ forget it… you keep reminding me…

_How does that make you feel?_

What?

_The sight of the hedgehog…_

Well… angry… I guess… but I mean… there must have been a good reason for him to have done that…

_It's because he's bad… keep visualizing him… never forget…_

Dark? Can we stop for now? It's making me feel… bad…

_Hmm?_

Well… I mean… its making me upset or something like that… I don't like it… It's making my fur stand…

…

…

_Okay… we'll stop for now… We'll do it again next week…_

Thank you, Dark…

…

…

Sign two… _why_ didn't I see it? Even then… even _then_ he had his obsession with Shadow. And he never let me forget it… ever…

Why am I just realizing this now? Where is all this coming from? Where was it all?

…

…

Something is wrong… I can't seem to do anything…

My body won't move on my command…

Dark..? Dark?

Everything feels distant… faraway… remote… just… out there…

I didn't tell my hand to move… what's going on? Dark? _Dark?_

_Yes?_

Dark! Something's wrong with me! It's like I have no control! My mind's in a fog… I'm in a daze… I feel like I'm losing it! What's going on!?

_Calm down… you're fine…_

Dark! No, I'm not! Something is wrong! Dark! Dark?! _Dark!_

_Shut up!_

…

…

That's when I started to fear him… I remember now. The way his voice became a bit of a hiss in my head. I could almost feel the eerie whisper in my ears… I wanted to shiver… to shake… to quiver… my muscles wanted to quake… but I couldn't. I couldn't move… I felt trapped in my own head… I was scared…

…

…

D-dark?

_Stop that bothersome whine of yours… It's pathetic…_

...

…

I wanted to respond… but that was the last thing I remember…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

* * *

Mephiles snorted awake, widening his eyes as much as he could. He sat up carefully and took a glance around the room. He was by himself.

"Well… that's _one_ mystery unlocked, but I could have done without it for right now…" He muttered to himself, shaking his head as he slid back down, hand to his face.

What had just gone through his mind was what he assumed to be of the time of the creation of Dark, a piece of his memory that had remained dormant for a long time. For some reason, it had decided to resurface… why, he didn't know, but right now, it wasn't important.

Taking a glance at the clock, he saw that is was merely three in the afternoon.

That was good… he didn't need to worry about falling asleep for a while.

* * *

Well... end of chapter one.

I had fun writting Mephy's perspective on the creation of Dark. I felt that it hadn't been touched upon, so I needed about a couple thousand more words to this chapter length :P

See ya next time.


	3. New Power

After one month of writer's block... I manage to make a new chapter.

I also have a new roll-up-able silicone keyboard... which my cousin bets will break after three weeks... I hope I win.. if not, there's still my old trusty one from an old Hewlett Packard. But this new one needs to be hit a little harder... and it's... different...

Oh... and Mom is gonna have to go to Iraq for 6 months on clean up... DOESN'T THE MILITARY CARE SHE'S MY MOM!? What about my birthday? She leave either June or July. Not fair in my view... T-T That was one hell of a "Good morning..."

Oh, and I got a sock monkey now! :D So cute!

Hope you like this chapter

There's a little Mephiles and Shadow bonding here :D

* * *

There was a marathon of "Monster Quest" on the History channel.

After wondering briefly just how the program didn't end up on Sci Fi, Mephiles decided to watch it anyway. The current subject was "Chupacabras".

Getting too far into it, he hadn't noticed that Shadow had made his way into the living room a little later.

Needless to say, upon barely noticing, Mephiles screeched loudly and threw whatever he had in his hands at the ebony hedgehog, which was the remote control. This was done simply on instinct.

After both Shadow and the remote hit the ground, Mephiles finally regained his composure and stared in shock at he had caused.

After a few minutes, he blinked and broke free from his astonishment, then yelped out an apology as Shadow sat up, holding his hand to his head, teeth clenched together.

"What was _that_ for?"

"I'm sorry! I was just- There was- History- Chupa-thingies!" Mephiles tried to explain, but could only stammer out the words into something not quite intelligible.

"Still… I can't help but get the feeling that you're mad at me or something. Maybe a bit scared…"

"Well, you'd be too if-!" He cut off suddenly, blinked and turned away, crossing his arms.

Shadow blinked as well and tilted his head to the side. Staring at the hedgehog for a while, Shadow realized that Mephiles was shaking slightly.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Mephiles didn't respond.

Shadow made his way over to Mephiles and took a look at him.

His eyes were closed, his head lowered, his teeth clenched together, and ears flattened against his head. The edges of his eyes were sparkling with tears. He was breathing fairly quickly, shoulders hunched up, as if he was in a defensive position.

Shadow furrowed his brow in concern, and placed a hand on his shoulder, almost half expecting him to jump and possibly yelp.

Instead of that, Mephiles relaxed a bit, and his breathing slowed down a little, almost like he was in a trance again.

Shadow immediately knew he had done something wrong. He pulled his hand away quickly, clenching it and holding it to his chest.

Mephiles opened his eyes slowly, and blinked before turning his head to look at Shadow, who half expected him to break down again.

Instead he asked: "W-was I really like that?"

Shadow wasn't quite sure what he was talking about.

Mephiles, seeing his confusion, asked more clearly: "Was I really that bad… that I nearly killed you, Rouge and Omega?"

It took Shadow a moment to understand what he was talking about. He was referring to the fight right before the two were fused together.

He shook his head.

"No… that wasn't you…"

"It was… Dark?"

"Yes… it was…"

Mephiles nodded slowly, and took a deep breath.

"Shadow… how do you live with all of this..?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, I mean… there's just… all that… bad stuff… you've had happen to you. _I_ would have gone mad with just the ARK thing… How do you do it? How do you keep from losing it?"

Shadow thought about it for a moment, and then had an idea.

"How about if I tell you… will you talk about what happened last night?"

"Eh?"

"You have to eventually… unless you want to have a repeat of three months ago." Shadow reasoned. "I'm sure you don't want that… right?"

"N-no… I don't…"

"Good." Shadow flashed a smile, and sat down next to him. "Okay, I'll start first."

Mephiles perked his ears forward to give him his full attention.

"It's really easy, actually…" Shadow started, his smile becoming more like a grin. "In fact, you have everything you need to follow what I do…"

"I do?"

"Of course…"

Mephiles waited for Shadow to spill what he was talking about, but Shadow simply let it drag out.

"What is it?" Mephiles said a bit impatiently. "What are you talking about?"

"It's simple… think about it."

Mephiles did… but he just couldn't get it.

"I give up…"

Shadow couldn't help but laugh.

"Y'know… for a guy that's supposed to be the brains of an all powerful and merciful sun god… you can be a bit slow…"

"Was that a jab at my intelligence?"

"Not really… You _are_ pretty bright…"

"Bad pun, Shadow…"

"I know…"

"So, how do you do it?"

"Easy… I have friends that care about me. You have that too…"

"That's it?"

Shadow nodded.

"That's all. As long as there are people to care about me, and help me when I need it, I can keep my mind sane." He said. "Now you have to keep you end of this deal."

"I see… But I can't help but feel as though it doesn't work the same with me…"

"How so?"

"You say that I have all of that… but how come I still have problems?"

"Because you tend to either not talk about what's really bugging you, or you hide from us."

"I do _not!_" Mephiles snapped in his defense.

"Then what was that earlier today? When you refused to even be in the same room with me?"

Mephiles didn't say anything.

"Now, see… you're not talking about it."

Mephiles scratched his ear in response.

"What is there to talk about?" He said simply. "Apparently, I have a new ability… and I can tell it'll be nothing but trouble."

"You can't be sure of that…"

"Remember my visions five months ago? _That_ was trouble."

"That's different. It was more like a warning. You wouldn't have known to run if you didn't know about the Android."

"But I still froze up! I wouldn't have been able to move if you hadn't Spin Dashed into the side of it to get it to let me go." Mephiles rubbed his hands up and down his arms. "I'm a coward…"

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am…"

"You manage to rid the world of a demonic entity, most of the time you had to face him on your own. You fought him back, and you did this for the thought of other lives other than your own in mind."

"But I still got hurt, I still tried to kill myself, and I still _died!_" Mephiles held his ears back again, clenching his teeth together.

"In all technicalities… your heart didn't stop long enough to be really considered dead."

"It still stopped, and that scares me!" He snapped, curling inward slightly and hiding his face in his hands. He was trembling again.

"Hey, calm down…" Shadow said, almost placing a hand on his shoulder again, but thought against it. "You still made it out okay… aside from a few wounds here and there, and maybe some bad injuries…"

"And what if I hadn't? What if I died and I couldn't be brought back? Would it still have been okay?"

"No…"

"Tell me, which did you chose?"

"What?"

"When I lost it under that whole possibility between either having to either kill Dark and let me die as well, or have me live, but him too… which did you want to chose?"

"Neither… it wouldn't have been fair to you…"

Mephiles was staring at him, frowning slightly, his eyes fixed on a certain spot on his head.

"What?"

"You're hurt… from when I hit you with the remote… you're bruised there…" He passed his hand over the small injury and pressed on it lightly.

Shadow watched in confusion as Mephiles' eyes shifted into a daydream kind of trance. Shadow could see Mephiles' hand start to glow with an aura of light purple, the soreness in his bruise slowly disappearing.

After a while, Mephiles' hand pulled away and his eyes quivered for a moment before he blinked and shook his head quickly.

"Wha-what just happened?"

"Call me crazy… but I think you just healed my bruise…"

"I… did..?"

"I think you have the ability to heal other people as well…" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow.

"I… do..?" Mephiles brought his hand in front of his face and flexed his fingers for a moment. Then he had an idea.

He held his hand over his ankle and his eyes held the same daydream-like look again as his hand glowed.

This took a while longer, but when he pulled his hand away, he prodded at the injury.

Shadow expected him to yelp in pain, knowing that his ankle still bothered him.

But instead he poked at it again, then, while holding on to the couch's arm rest, he got to his feet and his eyes lit up.

"I do!" He grinned. "My foot doesn't hurt when I stand anymore!"

Then he broke out into laughter, clapping his hands together before hurrying out of the living room excitedly.

"Hey, Rouge! Guess what I found out!?"

Shadow couldn't help but laugh.

"He's just like a kid sometimes…"

* * *

Good for him :D Not all his abilities are bad :D

Hope you liked this chapter too :D


	4. Chaos

Finally! An update to Memories! :D

I think you might like this chapter.

* * *

Shadow woke up to a prodding the following morning. Lifting his head up, he saw Mephiles level with him, a frantic look on his face.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait…" Shadow pulled the blanket over his head, having seen that it was only seven in the morning.

Mephiles prodded him even harder, this time whimpering.

"What?"

"It's Krystal and Sharpe! There's this cocoon thing around them!" Mephiles half yelled, surprising his voice cracking just enough to notice. "What's going on with them!?"

Shadow lifted his head from the pillow on the floor again and said: "Nothing's wrong… they're evolving… as in getting older… what ever alliance they become after it's over means if you either treated them right, are on the good side, balanced good and evil equally, or if you did neither…" He put his head back down and pulled the blanket over his head again.

"_Evolve?_" Mephiles said shrilly. "I don't want them to evolve! I like them the way they are! What if I did it wrong?! What if they're not the same?! _What if I was a bad Chao Parent!?_"

"Are you kidding me?" Shadow looked up again, annoyance etched into his expression. "You practically smother them with love and attention… How can you think that?"

"Chaos take on the traits of their owners, right?" Mephiles caught his lip between his teeth. "During that whole ordeal with Dark, and the fact that there are traces of him still there… what if it brushed off onto one of them?"

"You're blowing this out of proportion…"

"I'm serious! I'm most worried about Sharpe… he seems to have a bit of Dark's traits in him…"

"He looks exactly like Krystal, except for the eyes…"

"Same with me and Dark! _Do you get my point?!_" Mephiles latched his hands to his quills, his eyes wide with a frantic look in them. This was obviously trying on his nerves… which, granted, didn't take much to send him over an edge. "He also gears his mischief at me, and tries to pull Krystal into his little schemes as well! I'm thinking I got twins because of the fact that me and Dark were split personalities! It all makes _sense_ now!"

"Did… did you have any coffee yet this morning?" Shadow raised an eyebrow, knowing that caffeine actually reversed manic states of mind with Mephiles… otherwise, he was hyper and high strung, and surprisingly able to come up with wacky theories that scarily made a lot of sense.

"No!"

"Go get some, take a breath and start over…"

"Start over? _Start over?!_" Mephiles grabbed Shadow by the shoulders and pulled him forward to where the two were eye-to-eye, face-to-face, nose-to-nose… God, you get the point by now… we've been through this several times already. "My Chaos are in a thing that look like something out of a 'Gremlins' movie! Every second counts! Fix it! _Now!_"

Even with the soft pale red sclera, and lime green irises void of cat-slit pupils, Mephiles could look menacing if he was frantic… what with the eye twitching and all…

Shadow cringed.

"I can't do anything about it…" He tried reasonably, raising a hand to wave it halfheartedly. "If I tried, I endanger their lives… just let Mother Nature run her magic on them, and they'll be fine, if not better…"

"I didn't tell Mother Nature to mess with them!" Mephiles pushed him back and Shadow toppled over. "I like them the way they are!"

"Y'know, most Chao owners take this as a good sign… it means that they are happy and want to grow up… they can do so much more now…"

"Like..?"

"Breeding comes to mind…" Shadow shook his head. "Purebred Chaos can pass their traits on to the next generation and make a new breed of Chao…"

A pause before a crystal clawed hand smacked into his face.

"Ow!"

"No one is breeding them!" Mephiles barked.

"It's not really a thing you can control very well…" Shadow rubbed a hand to his face, wincing at a bruise. "If they like another Chao very much, they're willing to make an egg…"

"Krystal and Kai like each other…" Mephiles said slowly before gasping loudly. "I can't take care of four Chao!"

"Relax… it's not breeding season yet…"

"And when will I know?" Mephiles said quickly. "I want to be sure to keep them separated during that time."

"There's usually a week every season, and the ones ready will have a ring of flowers around their necks if they're a girl… or on their heads if they are a boy…"

"Bright flowers?"

"Yep…"

"That's easy to notice on dark colored Chaos…" Mephiles said to himself before clapping his hands together. "When I see it, I'll nip it in the bud!"

There was a pause before he snorted.

"I just made a pun!"

Shadow raised an eyebrow before saying: "How long ago did they start?"

Mephiles' eyes shot wide open.

"Omigod!" He jumped up and sped to the living room, seeing the single cocoon start to fade and he could see the silhouettes of his Chaos within it.

Kai was watching intently, perched on the coffee table, tilting his had to the side.

"When you two get those flowers…" Mephiles warned him. "You stay away from her…"

"Chao..?" Kai scratched his head.

Before Mephiles could explain, he yelped as their forms became clearer just as Shadow and Rouge came in.

Krystal still had her eggshell, but there was a halo of a teal color over her head. Her little crystal claws were rounded on the edges. Her little butterfly wings were now feathered wings with a gradient of purple. Her fur coloring was still a grey teal, but a lighter grey teal. Mephiles was excited to find that she was now a Hero Chao.

Sharpe, as Mephiles predicted, had become almost the opposite. His ball over his head was now a spiky ball of the same color as Krystal's. His claws were almost exactly the same as it was before, and his wings were bat wings with tips of purple. He had a darker teal fur coloring… needless to say, Mephiles didn't seem all too happy.

"I was afraid of this…" He shook his head. "It either means one of three things: 1) I'm bad deep down, 2) Dark's still alive, or 3) Dark and me influenced them both…"

"I'm going with number three…" Shadow said. "You're _not_ a bad person, and I _saw_ Dark die…"

"You saw him die the first time too…" Mephiles folded his arm and rested them and his head on the back of the couch, eyebrows raised. "But he still came back…"

"After a panic attack that was borderline heart attack… I don't think so…" Rouge said.

"And if he was coming back, he knows you can stand up to him…" Shadow brought up.

"… I wouldn't have been able to if you guys weren't there with me through the whole thing…" Mephiles said softly, shaking his head. "… He really knew how to get at me… he called me 'Mephy Boy', even though we were equal in everything, because it belittles me…" He sighed, letting his ears droop. "… He addressed me like a little kid as if I could really do nothing to stop him…"

"I remember you telling him to stop calling you that…"

"… Y'know he only once called me by my real name..?" He closed his eyes for a moment, as he pulled the newly recovered memory forward. "… He actually named me 'Mephiles' and I named him 'Dark'… I found that out yesterday…"

"How?" Rouge said, her and Shadow looking very confused.

"After you guys left me alone for a while… I remembered that." He looked up at them. "I think Dark's kept a few of my memories about him secret, trying to keep me from discovering a few things about him that could have helped us fight him those times. But since he's not here anymore… it's a matter of triggering the right one the right way…"

"What triggered that?"

"I think Shadow's memory I ended up seeing. I dunno what part of it did it, but it helped…"

"So what you're saying is..?"

"There's a part of me that I hardly know about…" Mephiles shrugged. "The part that Dark tried to keep down…" He looked at his hand. "And maybe this new power can help me find the real me…"

"I dunno, Meph…" Shadow said. "I mean, what if it just makes it worse? You have some of my thoughts in your head… what's to say-?"

"Shadow, the very mystery of my existence in _here!_" Mephiles pointed to his head. "Everything I want to know about me and Dark is locked and hidden away to where I can't get to it…"

"Maybe it's best that you don't-"

"_You_ more than anyone should understand this!" Mephiles raised his voice to make his point. "You know what it's like to have something like the true meaning of your existence so close to you but just far enough out of your reach that you can't close your fingers around it!"

"But I did learn of the true meaning of my existence, and it wasn't what I thought it was all this time…"

"You told me that you were created to help your best friend!"

"That, _and_ that the other half of the deal was that I was also made to help both sides of the Black Arms invasion too! Do you know how confusing that is?"

"Wait… what?"

"Doom wanted me to destroy the earth, and Professor Gerald wanted me to save it…"

"And you chose the good side…"

"Sure, let's go with that…"

"What?"

"I was on the good side most of the time…"

Mephiles held up a hand.

"Whatever you're hiding from me, Shadow…" He said, taking a step around the couch. "I have the ability to find out anyway… so you better not be lying…"

"He's telling the truth…" Rouge said, stepping between them.

"Seriously?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"No… neither would he…" He narrowed his eyes for a moment before smirking. "But, y'know… I can't be too sure!"

And with that, he touched a hand to her arm and he eyes shifted to the daydream state again.

"Mephiles!" The both of them exclaimed.

Shadow stepped forward and pulled Mephiles' hand off of Rouge's arm, Mephiles eyes shifting back to normal. He blinked before giggling all of a sudden.

"_What_ did you see?!" Rouge asked shrilly, having not expected that.

"You two _kissed!_" Mephiles said between giggles. "You did when I was asleep in the hospital room! Rae and Jak saw it, too… so you can't tell me that that was supposed to be a secret!"

"Just which one of us were you exactly this time..?" Rouge frowned in a way that Mephiles figured any of the two choices were going to get him in trouble. If he said Rouge, he would have been the one kissing Shadow, which would lead to a lot of problems between the three… if he said Shadow, he would be the one kissing Rouge, which would make Shadow mad at him for taking his role…

Being as he touched Rouge's arm, the answer was a bit obvious, so he said: "Uh… neither… I saw it from… another point of view…"

"Whose?"

"That's' not important right now…" His face turned red and he directed his attention elsewhere. "So… My Chaos are all grown up now? What happens after that?"

"If you take really good care of them, they reincarnate after they die…"

"_Die?_" Mephiles widened his eyes. "Chaos die?"

"Everything does…" Shadow said. "But Chaos can reincarnate many times, and after the second, there's a trick to turning them immortal…"

"But, that means that they could outlive me…"

"Likely…"

"I don't want that…" Mephiles shook his head. "I'd rather outlive them, so that they don't have to spend one day without me…"

"That's… actually a cute idea…" Rouge said, forgetting that she was mad at him.

Mephiles grinned.

Kai slid off the couch and waddled hesitantly over to Krystal, who tilted her head before crying out a "Chao!" happily and the both of them began chanting a Chao song.

Sharpe grinned, showing off his newly acquired set of fangs before flapping his little bat wings and landing on Mephiles' head.

"I saw this in a movie once…" He said warily, looking up the best he could. "And then the little critter with sharp claws and fangs messed with the lady's hair…"

Mephiles saw a few quills drop to the ground before a clump of crystals fell as well.

"He… uh… he clipped my quills, didn't he..?"

"You're… bald…"

Mephiles caught a glimpse of himself in the reflection of the T.V., screamed and ran out of the living room in a puff of purple mist, intending on fining a hat to wear for a week, Sharpe giggling as he hovered just above the couch, holding a few crystal quills in his claws.

"Okay…" Said Shadow. "_Now_ I think Sharpe has a bit of Dark in him…"

* * *

The whole Sharpe thing was planned to begin with. Since I've added him and Krsytal, I've been wanting to bring up his connection to Dark since the beginning.

Mephiles basically explaned it for you :D


	5. Uncovered

Okay... back on track...

Bit of a sad chapter up ahead...

* * *

Pulling the hat down over his head further to hide the baldness, Mephiles shot a glare at Sharpe, who was now snipping the clipped quills in half, laughing up a storm.

It was going to take a week for his quills to be back to normal…

"I learned something today…" Mephiles said calmly.

"What?"

Mephiles looked up at Shadow and Rouge.

"Being a Chao parent is wanting to hug and strangle your Chao at the same time…" He said. "That… and I look stupid in a hat…"

Mephiles pointed up to the said object on his head, which was a blue, wool cap with a pom-pom on the top. It was the only one he could find.

Mephiles brought a hand to his head suddenly and frowned.

"That's weird…" He said. "I'm starting to feel a bit dizzy now…"

"Are you okay?" Shadow said, looking just as concerned as Rouge.

"I think so… I just need to sit down…" He eased his other hand to his face, breathing slowly as his voice faded to a mumble. He didn't notice that someone had helped him to the couch before he could collapse.

"He was just fine a moment ago…" Rouge said, moving her ears back a fraction. "He's almost in a trance…"

Indeed he was…

Eyes half open, he stared at nothing in particular, his fingers dragging lightly down his face as his hands slipped.

Then his eyes clouded over as they scanned the room, his ears flipping back as he started to pant.

"Mephiles..?" Rouge said as Shadow touched a hand to his shoulder and shook Mephiles lightly.

Then Mephiles screamed, or rather screeched and cured into a ball, performing a weak attempt at a Spindash, and bounced off of Shadow and behind the couch, unrolling and scrambling aimlessly around the room, bumping into things as he did.

The bat and the hybrid hedgehog stared in complete shock as Mephiles displayed actions of an Earth hedgehog; trying to hide under something, digging his claws into the carpet as if attempting to burrow to safety, and hissing as he puffed out his quills.

Shadow widened his eyes.

A little known fact about Mobians was that they could understand their Earth counterparts quite perfectly, as in a bat could communicate with Rouge and a rabbit could with Cream… some Mobians were lucky enough to be to extend that to another species, like displayed between Rae and Jak.

And Shadow was able to hear most of what Mephiles was saying.

"… _Not again… please, no… let me out… let me out!_"

Mephiles thought he was trapped.

He bared his teeth, standing on his toes and fingers to make himself look bigger, although, because he lack any quills on his head at the moment, the effect wasn't as great.

His eyes were wide, nearly round with fright and he suddenly dropped to the ground, curling into a tight ball, his spiky tail wrapped close to his shaking body.

Then he gasped and half jumped back into a bookshelf, knocking several volumes off and one particularly large one colliding with his head, knocking him out almost instantly.

The bat, hedgehog and three Chaos all yelped at once, Sharpe tossing the quills behind himself as his concern for his "parent" overrode his mischievous side as they all hurried over to the unconscious hedgehog.

Mephiles' nose twitched, signaling that he was otherwise okay, and everyone breathed a sigh of relieve for a moment.

"What was _that?_" Rouge asked. "I couldn't understand any of the sounds he was making…"

"He was speaking 'hedgehog'…" Shadow shoved the book aside as Krystal and Kai tugged at Mephiles' ears gently to try to wake him up. Shadow shook his head. "I'm only half hedgehog, but I could understand most of that. He thought he was trapped, and wanted to get out…"

"He was speaking 'hedgehog'? Like, Earth hedgehog?"

"The very same…"

"But, to do that… he'd have to either know it…"

"Or he _was_ an Earth hedgehog…" Shadow waved a hand out of habit while explaining. "Mephiles has said before that he can only really remember his life from the moment the explosion happened, and part of his life in the Scepter of Darkness… he also said that he suspects that Dark has kept some of his memories away from him… maybe this is something that could help him figure it out…"

"But what caused this to resurface?"

Shadow paused.

He didn't have an answer.

"I don't know…" He shook his head. "The answer, as he had said before, lies somewhere in his head. It seems though, that this new power could be the key to unlocking them…"

Before further discussion, Mephiles stirred and groaned, lifting his eyelids up slowly to find his Chaos prodding and poking him and Shadow and Rouge leaning over him, looking halfway between scared and worried.

"… Wha… What just hit me..?" He said, feeling the bruise on his head from the book. Holding a hand to it, he looked up. "What happened..? You guys look like something weird just happened..?"

"Meph… are you aware that you can speak fluent 'hedgehog'?" Shadow said slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"I am a hedgehog, so I assume that I am speaking it right now…"

"No… I mean Earth hedgehog…"

"Like… those little spiky balls of quills, related to porcupines and echidnas, type earth hedgehogs?" Mephiles held up his hands and made an air estimate in size, looking up with a confused look, having not really noticed that he was a good ten feet away from where he was when he was last talking to them.

"Mephiles… you're not Mobian…" Shadow said a little flatter than he wanted to.

"What?"

"What just happened was a resurface of a memory… you were acting like an Earth hedgehog, and speaking like one."

Mephiles just stared at Shadow for a moment, before laughing.

"I'm sorry…" He said, taking a breath. "But I think I'd remember _that…_"

"You just got hit in the head with a book… it might have knocked it out of your mind temporarily…"

"Either way… if you could… please try to refresh my memory…"Mephiles said as he sat up, leaning against the bookshelf.

Shadow and Rouge explained to him with as much detail as possible about what they saw. Mephiles frowned at some of it as bits and pieces began to resurface.

After it was over he was silent for a while, staring at the floor.

Then he looked up, a serious look on his face.

"It seems that a lot of my questions cannot be answered here…" He said as Shape handed him his quills. "If I am to continue my search, I must go back to where it all started…"

"You mean… back to Soleanna?" Rouge said, ears perking forward. "I thought you didn't want to go back there after everything that happened to you..?"

"It's true that I don't want to go… but I feel as if I don't… I might never really know what happened… and the truth behind my coming as 'Mephiles' and what really happened that day in the laboratory may never be known…" He sighed. "However… I have no way of getting there…"

"If you just hold on for about a week… I'm sure Rouge and I could get an assignment to go there on request…"

"Really? For what..?"

"We could tell them it's follow up research on the accident. It's not a lie after all…"

Mephiles' eyes lit up. At last, another piece of the puzzle is in his reach!

"Oh, thank you!" He exclaimed. "I don't know what else to say!"

* * *

Within the week, a trip was booked and Mephiles made sure to let Rae know where they were going, in case she wanted to come by, and found the house empty.

"So, you think you might find the answers?" She said.

"Hopefully…"

"Good luck with that…" Rae smiled as Jak barked and wagged his tail. "How long will you be gone?"

"However long it takes till I find as much as I can…"

Rae looked at him with a bit of a sad look, her ears folding back.

"Come back as soon as you can…" She said. "I really don't like it when people I know are gone for too long…"

"I'll try…" He said. "I also was hoping that you'd look after Krystal, Sharpe and Kai for me…"

"Of course!" Rae grinned, her tails twitching. "I love taking care of other peoples' critters. Mom won't mind, either…"

"Thanks, Rae…" Mephiles was glad he found a piece for his Chaos to be. "I'll be back when I can…"

* * *

After about several hours in a plane to get there faster, Mephiles finding out about his apparent motion sickness problem that hit him half an hour after take off, which caused him to melt into a puddle, finding that that actually helped with the sick feeling.

Given a large jar to put the ooze in, Shadow and Rouge dumped the puddle of Mephiles onto the ground, where he took on his normal form, lying on his front pathetically.

"… If I had known this was going to happen…" He said, looking up dizzily. "I would have been just fine with walking here…"

"How were we supposed to know you got sick on plane flights?"

"How was I supposed to know that airplanes can make you sick?" He shot back at Shadow, pushing himself off the ground, and dusting the dirt off of his fur.

He looked up as stood still for a moment.

Soleanna was exactly the same as it had been nearly a year ago.

Mephiles remembered that the people were aware of his existence, and before he had wandered into Westopolis after running away from here, the people had been a bit cruel, knowing that he was the result of the Soleanna Disaster, and the trouble he caused after breaking free from the Scepter.

Mephiles took a step back and whimpered, wondering if this had been a bad idea. His eyes scanned the plaza, and he realized that the people were staring at him, some voices whispering, and several people were pointing at him.

Wanting now nothing more than to turn around and take off to hide in the forest, Mephiles spun around to do so before he felt a hand catch him by the tail.

He froze. He always did if you caught him by the tail, or sometimes by the wrist. He looked behind himself to see that Shadow had stopped him from running.

"… Sh-shadow… they're p-pointing and st-staring at me…" He stammered. "… Th-they remember what happ-pened…

"That doesn't matter, because they can't do anything to you…"

"Wh-why not..?"

"First off, Rouge and I are GUN officials, so we're escorting you…" Shadow explained, loud enough for the people to hear. "Secondly, they only remember Dark… to do anything to _you_ would be wrong, because you haven't done anything to them…"

"And why not?" Said a teenage girl, frowning and glaring at Shadow.

Shadow squinted for a moment, and said: "Ah! Sabrina! Still a brat, I see…"

"Better watch it, my daddy's-"

"The mayor of Soleanna… blah blah blah… I know…" Shadow growled, letting go of Mephiles' tail. "You kept reminding me when you made my look for those keys, the package, _and_ you made me save your sorry little butt from those Eggman Mechs… I thought you were grateful about that…"

"I was… but now you've got that… _thing_ here…"

Mephiles cringed at being referred to as _that. _He was enough of something to not be titleless, and that comment was just harsh.

Rouge folded her ears back.

"That 'thing' happens to be our friend…" She said quite coolly. "And he's a hedgehog…"

"He's still a demon… and he still caused trouble…"

"Perhaps you didn't hear Shadow…" Rouge flapped her wings and got in the girl's face. "That. Wasn't. Him."

"Sure looks like him…"

"Do you mind?" Shadow growled. "We're on official business regarding the Soleanna Disaster eleven years ago, and we don't need your input…"

"Ironic that you're bringing 'it' along…"

_That_ did it.

Shadow's fur lit up with a glow of red, his quills beginning to stand on end.

"You have three seconds to go away…" He said dangerously. "Or I'll _make_ you…"

The girl hurried away and Shadow dimmed down, shaking his head.

"She called me an 'it'…" Mephiles swiveled his ears back and stared at his feet. "I knew this was a bad idea…"

"But you wanted to come here to find your answers…"

"Yes… but not if it's just going to make people mad…"

"Ignore them… Don't let them take this away from you…" Rouge said.

Mephiles looked up and nodded slowly.

"You're right… I shouldn't let them…"

Within a half an hour, the trio made it to the abandoned laboratory, Mephiles freezing in place at the entrance.

"I have this feeling now… that I'm going to find something I won't like…" He whispered. "I have this kind of chill now…"

"We can try later if you want to…" Rouge offered.

"No!" Mephiles snapped. "This is the only way I can find out how this all began. Something in here has to trigger something that I can use to figure out my answers…"

And with that, he took a step inside, taking a deep breath, and moving forward, his friends behind him.

Their footsteps echoed throughout the empty halls, Mephiles brushing a hand against the wall as they moved deeper into the laboratory.

"Hasn't changed at all in nearly eleven years…" He muttered. "No ones' been here for that long… not even me…"

He brushed a hand against a rail and looked at the dust left on his hand.

"'Bout eleven years of dust in here too…" He rubbed his fingers together in thought. "Let me know if you see anything I might have missed…"

He looked up, and looked down the hall. His ears perked up.

"I remember this hallway…" He murmured, tilting his head to the side. "Faintly… but I do…"

"How?"

"Can't really explain it, but… there's something familiar about it…"

He took a few more steps down the hall and stopped in front of a door. An unexplained chill ran down his spine.

"Something's in there…" He said slowly, a shiver escaping him.

Then the shivering became quivering.

"You okay?" Shadow said, Rouge and him both eying his carefully. "You're starting to shake…"

"There's something behind this door… There's something there, and it's making me worked up about it…"

"Any idea what?"

Mephiles shook his head quickly, his quills shaking back and forth.

"No real clue… but something about it makes me want to look in there…"

"But the door's probably rusted shut be now…"

Mephiles thought for a moment and then said: "What if we use a Chaos Spear and an orb against the hinges? It should break them and the door can be pulled open…"

"Think so?"

Mephiles nodded, getting an orb ready in his hands just as Shadow made a Chaos Spear in his.

The two threw them at the hinges at point blank as Rouge pulled at the door. It fell open, slamming into the ground with an echoing thud as they jumped out of the way to keep a safe distance. Mephiles peered in first.

The wall was lined with cages with long empty food bowls attached to them, some with water bowls, and others with water bottles. Several cages were wide open, the locks having failed, and most cages with towels and padding in them. He spotted several litter boxes, indicating that there have been cats a long time ago, and he could see skeletal remains of several identifiable animals. Scorch marks were on the walls, some of the fabric torched on the edges.

He tensed up and swallowed, taking a step in and standing perfectly still.

"This is where I was kept…" He said. He blinked and shook his head. "I-I was a test subject here… not for chemicals or anything like that, but they were testing the effects of time on certain species… There was a dog… a few cats… and… a family… of hedgehogs…" He trailed off and made his way to one of the cages eye level with him. The door was open. "This was our cage…"

"Our?"

"My family's…" He said slowly, widening his eyes at this sudden pouring of information. "Th-there were four of us… me… my siblings… and… my… my mom… I had a mom…"

Lifting a hand to the wire frame door, Mephiles rocked it back and forth, lost in thought. Then he spoke up again.

"I don't remember names… but there were four of us…" He muttered, his eyes half closed. "The scientists left the cage open one day, and we got out… went different directions… last time I ever saw them… and I scurried down the hall… hoping to find a way out…"

He looked behind him and spotted something in the corner.

Almost dreading what it would be, he made his way over to there hesitantly, the back of his mind screaming at him to run as his legs quivered.

Shadow and Rouge watched him stop at the corner, seeing a shudder run through him as he stared down at what he had seen.

Bringing his hands to his face to cover his mouth, he slid to the ground on his knees as he gasped, tears starting to fall down his face effortlessly.

In front of him was the skeleton of a hedgehog curled around two hoglets protectively, scorch marks on the walls around them…

He had been the only one to make it out alive…

And they had been trapped after the laboratory explosion…

And judging from the scorches…

It had been Iblis…

* * *

Okay... I feel a bit bad writing that, but as we all know, Mephiles' creation was not a happy one.

So, Mephy had a family once... but he lost it all.

So... why was Mephy able to get out... and why did he end up a shadow?

Guess you'll have to wait and see.


	6. Leave Me Alone

Okay... bit of angst here...

Enjoy :D

* * *

Mephiles was in such shock. His world seemed to come to a complete stop as there was a dead silence in the room.

Easing his hands to his head, he twisted his fingers in his quills, pulling a few loose…

He had been the only one to get out before the accident.

He left his family behind and now he could see what had happened to them.

"… Mephiles..?" Rouge said, stopping at only his name, at a loss of anything to say.

"… They didn't get out…" The crystal hedgehog said softly, shaking his head as if hoping to erase it all and start all over. "… Th-they d-didn't f-follow me… and… h-he _k-killed_ them…"

"… Mephiles… I'm so sorry…" Shadow said, clenching his fists together as he shook his head.

Mephiles clenched his teeth together as more of the memories came to mind. Panting, he could just grasp more of what had happened that day. Holding back a sob, he clenched a hand into a fist and slammed it into the ground, exhaling through his teeth.

"… _You should be…_" He growled, lifting his head to stare at the wall. Shuddering as if he suddenly caught a chill, his fur and quills began standing on end.

"_What?_"

"This is all _your _fault!" Mephiles snapped and turned his head quickly to look at him, his eyes narrowed with anger. "I just wanted to find them, and _you_ scared me into a corner!"

Shadow took a step back, completely caught off guard by this.

"Wait! I just-"

"While you stuffed me into that stupid scepter, they were being burned alive!" Mephiles got to his feet and stared at Shadow furiously. "_My family was murdered while you tracked me down, calling me a demon!_"

Shadow and Rouge were shocked. Shadow had had no idea of that while he was following what he was supposedly supposed to be doing, according to time itself.

Shadow tried to regain his composure and tried to calm down the now distraught hedgehog.

"Meph… I had no idea… I'm-"

Before anything else could be said, Mephiles shoved passed Shadow and back into the hallway, taking off opposite of the entrance and into the labyrinth of hallways before them. Shadow managed to catch up to him before he got far and caught him by the wrist to try to get him to stop running.

"Let me go!" Mephiles hissed, trying to pull his hand away, prying at Shadow's fingers frantically. "Get away from me! Let go!"

"What are you running for?"

"I'm trying to get away from _you!_" Mephiles bared his teeth as a warning. "If you had just gone after that flame, you might have been able to save their lives!"

"Mephiles! What good would that have done?! They were Earth hedgehogs… they would have been dead after eleven years anyway!"

This made Mephiles scream loudly, and he bit Shadow on the arm hard enough to draw blood, which caused Shadow to let go as he clamped a hand over the bite.

Mephiles shoved him to the ground and continued running just as Rouge looked over the bite.

"That's not good…"

"Not worried about it getting bad, or anything…" Shadow said, shaking his head. "I've never really had an infection from his bites, but we need to catch up to him…"

"But it's bleeding…"

"It should let up in a few minutes…" Shadow nodded. "We better find him before he gets lost…"

* * *

Mephiles darted down the halls, not bothering to look back as he panted between each step…

All this time, he had been friends with the very reason he wasn't with his family…

His best friend…

If Shadow had left him alone…

Then…

…

…

…

Mephiles stopped for a moment to catch his breath and take in where he was.

More hallways…

Growling under is breath, he decided to start walking, figuring that he was far enough away from Shadow to buy some time to walk and to pause to think…

…

…

A chill ran through him. Something about this particular hallway was beginning to make his fur stand on end again, his legs starting to quiver as the air started to seem too thin to him.

He shook his head to clear it. It was probably nothing…

Then he stopped, before breaking out in a sprint again.

Something in here was scaring him, and he couldn't place his finger on it…

He slipped and fell to the ground with a **THUMP**, groaning for a moment while he took a bit of time to reorient himself.

"… Need to work on my balance a bit…" He murmured, shaking his head as he got to his feet slowly, almost regretting it when he started to feel a little dizzy. "Urgh…"

He took a few more steps and stopped when his ears perked up as they picked up the sound of broken glass crunching under his feet.

Feeling his stomach drop what felt several feet, he hesitantly opened his eyes and almost screamed.

He had wandered into the very laboratory that the explosion happened.

Eyes widening to their greatest point, Mephiles tried hard not to vomit as he saw the remains of everything around him, the air still smelling of death, which was making his stomach hurt as it started churning.

He backed away slowly and tripped over one of the scientists, landing flat on his back and looking up only to find to his horror that he fell between two of them.

His dizzy feeling hit over the top and a sharp pain struck him in both his head and chest, causing him to screech as he gasped for air and clutched at his chest, now regretting having run off like he did.

He managed a strangled cry of fright before he could do nothing more than whimper…

* * *

"Did you hear that?" Rouge perked her ears.

"Yeah… That was Mephiles…"

"He sounds scared…"

"Oh, God… if he is…" Shadow said, quickening his pace. "He might end up having a panic attack… and the air as a bad as it is here…"

"He won't be able to breathe right!" Rouge said as they stopped at a fork in the paths. She cursed. "Which way?"

"Have your communicator with you?"

"Yes…"

"Let's split up, and we'll contact each other when we find him…"

Rouge nodded and took the left path while Shadow took right.

Not long on her way down the halls, she found the laboratory room where Mephiles was curled up, shaking with fright, gasping in wheezy breaths and half conscious as he clutched at his chest.

"Mephiles!" Rouge hurried over to him and pulled him away from the bones of two scientists, Mephiles kicking his feet weakly, whimpering and moaning as he did. "Calm down… just hold on and we'll get you out of here…"

"… Sh-shouldn't… have… run off…"

"Mephiles… stop talking right now…"

"… I'm… s-sorry… I…" He whispered faintly before suddenly clutching his head and screaming. "_AHHH!_"

"_Mephiles!_"

Before anything else could be done, he fainted and fell limp with a yelp.

Panicking, she pulled him out of the room and into the hallway, getting a hold of Shadow on the communicator.

"Shadow?"

"Yes?"

"I found him… he's down this hall…"

"How is he?"

"He just fainted… the laboratory is down this way and…" Rouge paused. How was she supposed to describe all this? "… Well… he wandered in and was… overwhelmed…"

"I heard a scream…"

"… I don't know… He clutched his head, screamed and fainted…"

"How is he right now?"

"He's breathing… and he just looks like he passed out…"

"Hang on… I'm on my way…"

Rouge nodded and hung up, taking a look at Mephiles again. He seemed to have paled in a shade on his muzzle, and he twitched occasionally, as if something was still plaguing his mind…

* * *

"Look, I don't care _what_ you think!" Shadow growled at the hotel clerk, lamming his hands onto the desk and leaning forward to show that he was serious. "I don't care if you people hate him… we _need_ a room!"

"As long as you have that monster with you… no…"

"Look at him!" Shadow waved a hand at the hedgehog in question, who was in Rouge's arms and still unconscious. "Does that look like a _monster_ to you?"

"They come in many forms, Mr. Hedgehog…"

Shadow growled frustratedly and paused for a moment to take a breath before this got out of hand.

"Need I remind you that my friends and I are on official GUN business?" He tried a bit calmer, but with an edge still underlying his tone. "And since GUN has been coming in and out of Soleanna for the past year now… If I were to leave an unpleasant report of this place…" Shadow added a bit of a questioning tone to his statement, grinning slightly.

The clerk got the hint.

"Room 13B is a nice one…" He said quickly, handing Shadow the key, who nodded.

"Thank you, and have a nice day…"

"Nice work, Shadow…" Rouge added as they made their way to the room, Shadow pulling their bags along, which had finally showed up about an hour after their arrival. "I was almost worried that they wouldn't allow him in…"

"Me, too…" Shadow nodded. "I'm glad that he didn't have too badly of a panic attack… It looks like even the hospital here won't take him in… and Thizon is too far away right now… So what happened exactly?"

"My guess is that he freaked out when he saw the laboratory room… It hasn't been touched in years, so it's about eleven years worth of decay in there…"

"Yeesh… I wouldn't blame him…" Shadow set the bags down once they got inside the room. It was about as cliché of a hotel room as one could be, but no one was complaining. There were two beds however.

"Crud… how are we gonna do this?"

"I could take the floor again…" Shadow offered. "I'm used to it anyway… Mephiles is out of it, so he should get a bed right now…" Shadow gestured for her to set the hedgehog down as he started going through his bags. "I hope he's not really that mad at me, though… he looked almost half ready to kill me…"

Rouge sighed.

She had figured he was anyway, since he had come to the realization that Shadow had stopped him from getting to his family.

Urgh… with time travel… it was just one big mess after another…

"To be honest, Shadow, this whole time travel thing seems to be a root to this whole problem…"

"But, I wouldn't have had to go back in time, if Dark hadn't tricked Silver into thinking that he needed to kill Sonic… so… Dark is the root of this… but, Dark exists because I went back in time..?" Shadow ended that with a question, realizing that this was an infinite loop.

"Shadow, it's a paradox…" Rouge rolled her eyes. "It's suppose to exist because of something that exists because of what that something did to it…"

"I know what a paradox is, Rouge…" Shadow rolled his eyes as well. "I'm just wondering who started this to begin with… Me or Dark?"

"I don't have the answer to that!" Rouge snapped, starting to get tired of the constant wondering. "You both did! How's that!"

"But… that doesn't really…" He trailed off when he figured he shouldn't push it. He shook his head. "So, how long do you think he'll be out?"

"I'd give it a few hours before we should just consider heading home…" Rouge pulled a book out of her bag and sat down on her bed to read it. "If it wasn't too bad, he should be waking up before it gets dark."

Almost as if they spoke too soon, Mephiles began stirring, and groaned, bringing his hand to his forehead.

"… Ungh… what happened?" He sat up with a bit of effort, and looked around, before his eyes rested on Shadow. He narrowed them, and turned away, folding his arms, and flipping his ears back. "Rouge… can you tell Shadow I'm not speaking to him right now?"

"Are you _kidding_ me?!" Shadow said loudly. "_It wasn't my fault!_"

"Rouge… can you tell Shadow that knowing my family died while I was being chased by him just-"

"Tell him yourself!" Rouge raised an eyebrow. "I am not going to get in the middle of this."

Mephiles took a look a Shadow and clenched his teeth.

"No…"

"Okay, now you're just being childish…" Shadow said.

Mephiles hissed and puffed his quills.

"Maybe because I _was_ a child when that all happened! And thanks to Dark, I was put in some kind of coma for ten years! I should have _never_ left that cage!"

"Meph! Did you not see what had happened? You would have been burned alive too!"

"If I was made the second half of that artificial Solaris, then if I hadn't been there, Iblis wouldn't have been made! And they would have been okay!" Mephiles grabbed the pillow on the bed and threw it as hard as he could at Shadow. He then grabbed the alarm clock and got ready to throw that as well. He was so worked up now; angry, upset and scared at the same time… and he just wanted to vent it all out on Shadow.

Shadow snapped his fingers and Chaos Snapped behind Mephiles, catching him by the wrist and taking the clock from his hand. Mephiles growled and pulled at his arm to try to free himself.

"Let me go!"

"Not until you stop trying to kill me…" Shadow shook his head. "I'm starting to think that that remote you threw at me last week was on purpose…"

"It _should_ have been if I had known that you were the reason I don't have any relatives!"

"Just stop it! It wasn't my fault! I'm sorry! I'm so very sorry! Is that what you wanted to hear?!"

"It's not going to bring them back! They're gone! They're _gone,_ Shadow!" Mephiles screamed as tears started filling his eyes. "Let me go! You're holding my wrist too hard!" He tried to pull his wrist away, the look on his face telling Shadow that he was in some amount of pain.

Before Shadow could let him go, Mephiles quickly grabbed the hybrid hedgehog's arm unintentionally and almost immediately, his expression changed to his daydreaming stare.

"Not again!" Shadow exclaimed and let go of the wrist he was holding, and pulled Mephiles' hand off of his arm, Mephiles gasping for a moment.

"I just figured out why these memories are being triggered to begin with!" Mephiles looked up at Shadow with wide eyes. "There's connections between you and me!"

"That's really out there…"

"No, hear me out!" Mephiles shook his head. "The first connection is 'hallways'! It's in your head! It's in my head! Your memories! My memories! It makes sense now!"

"Weren't you just trying to kill me?"

"Not if I need you to figure things out…"

"You're a headache sometimes…" Shadow frowned and shook his head. "I can never really keep up with you…"

"Anyway, I need Shadow to help me with-"

"No!" Shadow barked. "No way! Nuh-uh! Not after what happened at the lab today!"

"Why not?!"

"Because…" Rouge said calmly, looking up from her book. "Too much of this all at once could do bad stuff to you… And you haven't told us what made you scream and hold your head yet…"

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about…" Mephiles blushed a bit, which contradicted what he was saying.

"Well, if that is that case…" Shadow said. "Then tomorrow is a day off from your search…"

"What!?" Mephiles barked. "Are you serious!?"

"You're already on edge… you need to calm down, and take a break from this…"

"It was only one day of searching!"

"One day that was a bit too much…" Rouge said, turning a page.

Mephiles heaved a sigh through his teeth in response.

"I think _I'll_ decide when something is too much for me…" He growled.

"As your friends, we just don't want to see you get hurt…"

Mephiles couldn't say anything to that, and muttered to himself, shaking his head and biting down on his thumb.

"I heard that…" Rouge flicked an ear at him.

Mephiles bit harder.

* * *

When night came, the trio decided to turn in for the night, Mephiles still protesting about the idea of having to take a break.

As much as he denied it though, it was evident that he needed it when his night became troubled.

Shadow flickered an ear at the sound of rustling on the bed Mephiles was sleeping on. A whisper of a light moan met his ears as he looked up to find Mephiles shifting around on the bed uncomfortably, his breathing pattern getting faster and faster as the second passed, his chest heaving up and down as he eased a hand to it to clutch at his patch of white fur.

Shadow got to his feet and placed a hand to Mephiles' shoulder and gave him a light shake to try to rouse him. Mephiles clenched his teeth and rolled over, now whimpering as a shiver started to run through him, sweat starting to bead up on his face.

"Meph, wake up…"

The whimpering got louder as Mephiles shook his head, still caught in his bad dream, rolling over again, the blankets getting wrapped around him.

"Mephiles… you're having a dream again…" Shadow said a bit louder, trying to get him to wake up.

Mephiles grunted and rolled off the bed with a yelp, now half awake when he had hit the ground.

For a few moments, he didn't register that he had still been asleep, and started to panic when he realized that he wasn't able to move very will, unaware that he was now tangled up in the blankets.

Mephiles yelled almost detachedly as he thrashed about, trying hard to free himself from what he perceived at moment as being caught in a trap.

By this point, Rouge was already awake and was peering over the edge of her bed as Shadow pinned him to the ground and snapped his fingers few times to get Mephiles to wake up completely. With a snort, his eyes opened wider and he looked around in total confusion.

"Wh-where… am I..? Wh-whajust… happened..?" Mephiles muttered, parts of his words slurring together as he slowly regained the use of his tongue.

"You were having a nightmare… I think…" Shadow said.

"If I was… I d-don't remember it…"

"Then it was a night terror again…"

"I th-thought I was... over them…"

"It takes more than a month or so for them to go away…" Shadow helped him get loose. "Sometimes, they never do…"

"Are you kidding me..?"

"No…"

Mephiles sighed, sitting up as he rubbed his temples. "Urgh… I'm getting such a headache from all of this…"

"Maybe if we went home..?" Rouge suggested before Mephiles perked an ear quickly and cut across her.

"No! Not until I've learned all I can about all of this!" He shook his head carefully, not wanting to aggravate his headache any more that it was. "Today was just a bad start…"

"You're still taking the day off…" Shadow reminded him.

"Don't see what good it'll do…" Mephiles growled, still a bit peeved at Shadow. "If everyone in the city hates me… I won't be able to go anywhere without you two…"

"We'll come with you then…"

…

…

…

"Sure… why not?" Mephiles heaved a sigh and twisted his frown into half a smile, his voice carrying a tone that indicated that he was being sarcastic.

* * *

Okay... so, Meph seems to have some kind of attitude problem going on here... Then again, who can blame him?

See ya next time!


	7. Return of Darkness

Okay... continuing on... but before I do... I would like to answer a review which might answer a couple of things pertaining to the reaction of the last chapter on DeviantArt:

Okay, to one of my trusty reviewers, **DarkspineSilver92**... who said the following, which I will answer in increments:

"Mephiles should grow up, there's more to it than just Shadow."

That is true. There is more to it than just Shadow. And Mephiles should grow up, since he's capable of being more mature than that. However, he's only nearly eleven in this fic, and no mater how "grown up" you can be, something that shakes your world can revert you to what you really are in a matter of seconds. Trust me. :D As for it being more to it than just Shadow... Mephiles himself will explain himself in this chapter. It just seemed that since Shadow was the one present at the moment, Mephiles had to vent out before his mind snapped, as we all know Mephiles can't handle negative emotions that well.

"My only criticism of your stories so far is that you sometimes make Mephiles seem a little too harmless when he truly is an omnipotent time god. Keep that in mind!"

Ah, true! Mephiles may seem a little too harmless sometimes, but remember, he's only a kid. But we know to a degree of what he capable of, as illustrated in "Teaching Darkness: Relapse"... but there's still more to him than that. As for him being an omnipotent time god... we must remember that despite how he displays himself in the game, it was science that had a hand in creating him, and he is not really a god of any kind. That, and that I can't make him all powerful, or he becomes a Gary Stu (Male Mary Sue), which is something that is frowned upon. And, really, I have reason to believe in the game, Mephiles isn't as powerful as we think, or as he portrays himself.

That stems from the cutscenes and that boss fights, which you may have guessed that ol' Rae here have played countless times. I should note that he can't take a hit from a bullet very well, nor a kick to the face. Have you _seen _him collaspe and trip? I have :P

Anyway... I hope that's all.

Enjoy this chapter... I have a feeling you might love it.

* * *

The following morning however, Mephiles felt sick.

His head was hurting, which in turn was making his stomach feel bad.

"You have a bit of a fever right now…" Rouge informed him as she placed a hand on his forehead, Mephiles' flinching a bit. "It's a good thing that today is your off day…"

"… I didn't want to have to spend it like this…" Mephiles frowned, shaking his head slowly. "Is it just me… or do I seem to get sick a lot..?"

"Not nearly as much as when you first came to live with us…" Shadow pointed out, nearly snickering. "Yipes, the first few months it seemed like you were sick every other week…"

"I was… if I recall correctly…" Mephiles said, raising an eyebrow.

"Either way…" Shadow said. "You should probably rest for the day. You've nearly burnt yourself out with all of this."

"… Maybe I should…" Mephiles said quietly, bringing his attention to his fingers, which he was drumming on his chest carefully. "… To be honest… I _have_ been feeling a bit worn out recently…" He looked up. "… I'm really sorry about yesterday…" He added sadly.

"You don't ha-"

"… No… I was a brat…" Mephiles shook his head slowly. "… I had _no_ right to be accusing you, Shadow…"

"In a way… it was still my fault…"

"… No… I didn't really mean all that…" Mephiles cringed, still upset with himself. "… I-I was just mad… there was just this moment of rage that just took over, and I lost myself… I felt like I had to blame someone other than myself…" He paused. "… I… I guess what I was thinking was that I wanted someone to share that pain with me… because it really hurt… I didn't want to have to think it was all my fault, and have to deal with it on my own…"

"Meph… You're never going to have to deal with something on your own…" Shadow said, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "You're our friend, and if something hurts you… we _want_ to know about it…"

"… It's just that you're always helping me… and I never really get to return the favor, because there's nothing I can do to make up for that…"

"Nothing?" Rouge said, looking a bit surprised. "Mephiles, last month, you proved to _every_one that you were truly capable of doing good…"

"Not to mention…" Shadow added with a wave of his hand. "That you were willing to fight Dark with a broken ankle, sprained wrist, internal injuries, a concussion and bleeding wounds… all for the sake of everything you cared about. Heh, you went ballistic when Dark was going to kill me in front of you… You bit his ear off!"

"… Just the crystal tip…" Mephiles' flushed muzzle deepened in color. "… I don't even remember biting him…"

"Either way… you still managed to do more damage to him than I could…"

"… You flatter me too much, Shadow…" Mephiles half snickered before returning to his serious tone. "… But, really… I'm so sorry about all of that yesterday…"

"It's okay… Just try to sleep that fever off, and we'll continue searching tomorrow…"

Mephiles nodded and said, his voice starting to quiver: "… A-also… when we go home… c-can we take them with us..?"

"What for?"

Mephiles bit his lip and shifted his eyes to the foot of the bed before saying: "… I-I want to find place to bury them… so I c-can visit them whenever I want to?"

"Sure… Of course you can…" Rouge nodded, her and Shadow both seeing Mephiles' mood lighten just a bit at that.

"… Th-thank you…" He half smiled and rolled on his side to curl up and try to sleep his fever off. Within a few minutes, he had already drifted off…

* * *

Slit pupiled, bright green eyes blinked in the abyss, no once taking themselves off of a large flame flickering before them.

"_Hello, brother… It's been a while…_" The owner's mouth twisted into a sharply fanged smirk, his teeth glinting in the flame's light.

"… Mephiles…?" The flame hissed a voice.

"_Yes, and no…_" The owner of the eyes flickered a torn ear. "_I am not Mephiles… but I am the side you knew as your other half…_"

"… Hm…" The flame brightened and twisted around itself, flaring up as set of three eyes identical to the other's opened within the flame. "… You look like Mephiles… so I would assume you are…"

"_Many do, sadly…_" The first said, baring his teeth. "_Allow me to make a proper introduction of myself, brother..._" He bowed, keeping his eyes fixed on the flame with a sort on longing look. "_I am Dark the Demon, Mephiles the Hedgehog's Anti-Self..._"

"… Mephiles the Hedgehog..? I tough he was Mephiles the Dark..?"

"_When together, we are…_" Dark lifted his head and stood up straight, clenching his fists to the side. "_But, as of now, Mephy Boy has managed to free himself of me, and we are no longer one of the same… It would seem as of now, Solaris now has three pieces…_"

"… No…" The eyes in the flame closed for a moment, as if thinking his words over. "… Mephiles is not a true piece of Solaris… however, the way you exist is through him…"

"_But, brother…_" Dark shook his head in half disbelief. "_I no longer have the ties… we can once again become whole…_"

"… No…"

Dark's eyes widened and he growled: "_What do you mean 'No'?"_

"… Since you exist because of him, you cannot form with me until the two of you are connected again…"

"_What?!_" Dark barked, his eyes shifting to a glow of blood red. "_Surely you _must _be kidding me…_"

"… Indeed I am not… '_Brother_'…" The flame opened its eyes again as it but a chilling emphasis on the word Dark referred to him as.

Dark felt an unexpected chill shoot down his spine for the first time he could ever recall. The glow dissipated and he clenched his fists again.

"_I don't like how this is going…_" He hissed, trying to establish that he was Iblis' equal, if not superior, with his tone.

"… What if I were to help you..? Make you… more powerful..?"

At that, Dark's ears perked up before he could understand the tone beneath the voice. Once he did, he flattened his ears and turned his back, intending to leave.

"_I'm not interested…_" He seethed through his teeth, shaking his head. "_I mean… Why share all the fun with a flame like you?_"

"… But… 'Brother'… a minute ago, you wanted to 'become whole' again… why the change of heart… if you have one?"

Dark clenched his teeth harder and made his fur and quills stand on end.

"_I just don't want to now…_"

And he took a few steps away, making the mistake of not looking back.

Iblis took that as his chance. Shooting off after Dark, the demon hedgehog could only twitch a torn ear before he turned around just enough to see the flame.

His eyes widened with fear as the flame hit him full force, knocking him over as it did. With a scream of fright, Dark tried fruitlessly to get away, but found to his horror that he was paralyzed.

"_Wha-what are you _doing!?" He hissed furiously, remembering that he had, to a degree, feared what Iblis was capable of. "Release me!"

"… But, 'Brother'…" The flame aura around Dark took on a vague resemblance to a demonic lizard, just enough for the face to form, which returned the smirk from earlier. "… I only want to help…"

Dark was frozen as the flame's shape melted and surrounded him, the hot heat of it working its way around him. The flame became an aura that sank into Dark's fur and past his skin, finally causing him to screech and arch his back as he regained his ability to move.

For a long and terrible minute, Dark screamed in agony, shaking his head from side to side as his Chaos Aura conflicted with the invader, shimmering between red and orange as he fought against it, biting at the air and hissing.

Then he collapsed, falling limp as his chest heaved up and down, gasping for breath as he groaned.

'_You understand now… "brother"? We must take care of that pesky hedgehog…_'

"_What… did you… do..?_" Dark said a little weakly, holding a hand to his head as he sat up slowly. He suddenly tensed up and grunted, bringing his other hand to his head as a sharp pain stuck him. Slowly, his eyes opened, and with a blank stare, he lowered a hand, holding a flame within his claws, he mouth twisting into a wicked smirk that was not his own, though his eyes held no emotion, as if you were staring into an empty shell.

"_Yes, brother... I do…_"

The voice that had come from Dark was as if his was in a daydreaming trance, all traces of his fear previously now washed away.

…

…

…

…

* * *

Mephiles jerked awake with a yell, clutching the covers in his hands tightly as he shot up, panting and gulping.

He was shaking until it registered in his mind that he had been dreaming. He gasped for air until he could calm down and fell back onto the bed with a sigh, his body quivering.

Bringing a hand to his face, he could feel the droplets of sweat that had beaded up under his fur, realizing his entire body was damp. To his relief, his fever was nowhere to be found.

"… Must have broken it…" he muttered, laughing to himself nervously.

He looked around and saw that the room was empty; Shadow and Rouge must have left for something, and judging by the time on the clock, they must have left for food.

"… What was _that..?_" He wondered to himself, shaking his head. "… It was like a dream about Dark… but it was like he needed help…"

With that thought wedged into his mind, he couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the idea. Seriously… Dark… needing _help?_

"… Must have been the fever getting to me…" He shook his head, still snickering. "… So what should I do until they get back?"

Mephiles decided that he was feeling well enough to stay awake to watch T.V, which had, to his excitement, extra channels, even the ones they didn't have back home.

Flipping through the extra channels, he found a station that apparently played the very shows Rae had mentioned to him before one weekend when she was making a comment on how cartoons were no longer as she remembered growing up on.

And with that thought, he found himself wagging his tail when an episode of "Angry Beavers" came on.

After about an hour, Shadow and Rouge returned to the room, toting a bag of food of some kind. If Mephiles' nose was not mistaken, he could swear he picked up the scent of orange chicken and chow mein, with a side of broccoli beef… his particular favorite.

"Oh my… is that for me?" He said excitedly, eyeing the food with his tongue between his teeth.

"Yep… we figured you'd be hungry since you declined anything this morning…" Shadow said. "I see you're feeling better…"

"Been up for about an hour…" Mephiles grinned, still staring at the containers as it was handed to him. "You knew _exactly_ what to get! Thank you!"

And with that, he took no time in getting started, mouth already so full of food that he resembled a chipmunk hen he cheeks bulged, not really taking time to chew before swallowing.

"Geeze, slow down before you choke!" Shadow reminded him, Mephiles adopting an annoyed look and chewed what he had in his mouth before swallowing it.

"Sorry…" He muttered, his face turning red around the cheeks.

As he continued to eat slower, Rouge pointed out something.

"You look like something is on your mind… Are you okay?"

Mephiles froze for a moment, cursing at himself for thinking while he was eating. He sighed.

"I had this… dream I think it was… just before I woke up…" He set the food down n the bedside table and stared down at the floor. "I don't know what it was really… but it was kind of weird… if not frightening…"

He continued on, telling them about how he had dreamt of Dark being tricked by Iblis, and that Iblis had decided to take control of Dark.

"Then don't worry about it…" Shadow said simply. "If you as me, he deserves it, the ba-"

"But, Shadow! I can't _not_ worry about it!" Mephiles said, shivering as a sudden chill placed itself over him. "For one, why would I have dreamt that?! Dark is dead! You said so! And two: it felt like it was a warning!"

Mephiles realized that his teeth were chattering against each other, and that his hands and feet felt inexplicably cold. Grabbing the blanket, he pulled it over his shoulders on his back and felt the chill subside a bit.

To his annoyance, he could feel the heat rising in his face again as his fever came back for an encore.

"Oh, no…" He groaned, shaking his head slowly as he eased a hand to his forehead. "It's coming back again…"

Shadow picked up the remote and shut off the T.V as Rouge planted a hand on his chest and eased him on his back.

"You haven't recovered completely…" Rouge said softly as Mephiles brought his other hand to his head, indicating that he was getting another headache. "Try not to get yourself worked up, or else you'd have to take tomorrow off as well…"

"But, I can't help but feel like I should listen to this one…" Mephiles said, then taking a moment to stare at his food he had left on the bedside table. "And… what are we going to do about my food?"

"You can finish it when you feel better…"

Mephiles would have continued talking, if he wasn't feeling so tired at the moment, hic was weird, since he had felt fine a few moments before…

* * *

Mephiles was looking around, taking in the area which he could see he was at.

His heart sank when he realized that it resembled a therapist's office.

"What am I _doing_ here?" He said out loud, realizing that the room seemed empty.

"_Perhaps the same reason as I am…_"

Mephiles froze as his blood turned to ice. He turned his head to look behind himself and found himself face to face with none other then his double, who twitched a torn ear.

"_DARK!_" Mephiles for a moment reacted on instinct and charged a Dark Spike in his tightly clenched hand, ready to hurl it at the doppelganger.

Dark calmly held up a hand to tell him to stop, which to Mephiles' own surprise… he did, Dark Spike dissipating in his hand.

"_Calm down… I'm not here to kill you…_"

"Why should I trust _you!?_" Mephiles growled dangerously, for once not afraid of Dark, but rather furious. "I almost died because of you! You hurt my friends in more than one way, and you tried to attack them!"

"_Have a seat…_" Dark ignored him and gestured to the center of the room, where a couch and a chair was.

"I'm not lying down on one of those things with you around!"

"_Very well then… _I _shall be the patient… and _you _can be the one taking notes… either way, it is advisable to take heed…_" Dark smirked and walked over to the couch and flopped onto his back, crisscrossing his fingers together and placing them behind his head.

Mephiles furrowed his brow in confusion, totally bewildered by Dark's behavior.

"_Hurry up… I haven't got all night…_"

Hesitantly, Mephiles made his way over to the chair, taking a seat, but keeping his eyes on Dark.

"_Relax… As I said before… I'm not here to kill you this time…_" Dark snickered as he noticed Mephiles keeping his body tense. "_Lets get started, shall we?_"

"Started on what?" Mephiles frowned.

"_Business of course! I'm sure you have some questions before I start… Hmm?_"

"You're darn straight I do!" Mephiles stood up and clenched his fists together, baring his teeth at Dark, who looked up with a bored look on his face.

"_Mephiles… _please_ sit down… this is important…_"

Mephiles was caught off guard by the use of his name. Dark never bothered to pronounce the full of his first name before, at least not around him.

"_What_ did you call me?"

"_Mephiles… that is your name still, isn't it, Mephy Boy?_" Dark yawned and scratched behind his ear. "_I know you changed your last name… But I'm sure the first is the same…_"

Mephiles nodded numbly and took his seat again before saying: "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Dark?"

Dark lifted his gaze to look at him with his dark red and poison green, slit pupil eyes and snorted.

"_I _am _Dark, Mephy..._" He shook his head in amusement.

"Then why aren't you trying to kill me?"

"_Stereotyping, Mephy Boy?_" Dark said half offendedly, giving Mephiles a look that was mock hurt. "_I am not _just_ a mindless killing machine… I have timing at strategies… And right now, it would do me much harm to hurt you when I need you for help…_"

"Me? Help _you?_" It was Mephiles' turn to laugh. "Hah! That's a good one!"

"_I'm serious…_" Dark glared, rolling over on his side. "_But first, your questions…_"

"Okay… fine… where are we?"

"_As far as I can tell and hope… my mind…_"

"You… have a therapy office in there?" Mephiles was confused.

"_Lets just say therapy is something the both of us need… perhaps me the most…_" Dark said with a hint of disgust, scanning his eyes around the room. "_How I hate it in here… I envy your mind so much… I would feel right a home in the abyss…_"

Mephiles glanced at a computer on the adjacent wall, seeing a screensaver of many kinds of colorful fish in a tank of bubbling water… sounds included.

"I kinda like the screensaver…"

"_It annoys me to no means…_" Dark seethed, tearing his eyes from it and forcing himself to stare at the bookshelf full of books on attitude adjustment and people skills, and from the layer of dust on them, Mephiles could see that they hadn't been touched. "_Continue… please, before that sound drives me mad…_"

"Can't you just unplug the speakers, or adjust the screensaver?"

There was an awkward silence in which Dark emitted a rising growl of annoyance, so Mephiles continued on before it could progress.

"Why are you still alive?"

"_The same reason you are… though I did not awaken on your plane of life... but rather, the supernatural… or something like that… I didn't care to ask…_"

"So…"

"_I am not on the same plane of existence as you right now… But where I am at allows me to enter your mind when you are asleep…_"

"You've been in my head!?"

Dark laughed, tossing his head back.

"_Only this time and last time…_" Dark snickered. "_Besides, no need to do it often… I already know all about you…_" Mephiles felt a chill settle in his body again. Dark saw that and gestured to a thermostat. "_If it's too cold in here for you… Go ahead and change it… I won't mind, so long as it's not too hot…_"

"Thought you said flames can't hurt us… So, I thought you wouldn't mind heat…"

"_True… but that comment brings me to our next subject…_"

"Iblis?" Mephiles had feeling where his was going as he turned the heat up a few degrees.

"_Keen mind you have there…_" Dark said half sarcastically. "_What gave you _that_ hint? The last dream you had?_"

"So… that was real?"

"_I wish I could lie about that…_" Dark seethed, shaking his head. "_Yes… it did indeed happen… very recently... about the time you got those new powers, to be precise…_"

"How do you-"

"_Must I repeat myself? I know _every_thing about you…_" Dark raised an eyebrow. "_Anyway… Yes… dear 'brother' Iblis has taken over the side of me that is irrational and insane… that is why I have no desire to harm you right now, as I normally would…_"

"Prove it…" Mephiles blinked. "How can I be sure you aren't trying to trick me again?"

"_Sadly… I have no proper proof… so I guess you will believe me fully when havoc and mayhem starts to happen… Hardheaded as you are… it's going to take an injury to gain your trust, isn't it? Not one from me of course…_" Dark added, realizing that Mephiles misinterpreted that.

"It just seems like you just bit off more you can chew, and you're looking for someone to push the load onto… and that would be me…"

"_I wish it was that easy… But, alas, I must indeed confirm that that dream you had was not a dream, but a vision of warning… much like those old ones you had back when I started to take control again…_" Mephiles just blinked, and Dark, seeing this, continued. "_I must say, though… despite our differences… we do have a bit in common… we-_"

Dark was cut off when Mephiles jumped up when he felt a surge of rage course through him and slapped Dark in the face, Dark curling up and holding a hand to his injury. Removing that hand, he hissed at the blood from a wound that the claws had left.

"_I suppose I deserved that one…_" Dark growled, reaching over to a box of tissues and grabbing a wad to press to the scratches.

"I am _nothing_ like you!" Mephiles seethed, having to take deep breaths to calm down, as he had started shaking, teeth bared dangerously, showing that his fangs were just as sharp. "Don't you _ever_ suggest that again!"

"_Nevermind… Perhaps it was too soon to say that…_" Dark muttered, keeping his eyes on Mephiles, who bared his teeth at Dark. "_To the point, now…_"

"I was wondering when we would get to that…" Mephiles hissed, taking his seat again.

"_My… we _are_ impatient, aren't we..?_" Dark snickered a bit amused by this. "_Anyway… I'm just warning you that if it seems like I'm coming after you… It's not me…_"

"So why warn me?" Mephiles was still skeptical as he folded his arms. "It's your style to try to kill me…"

"_Ah, but that there is the answer!_" Dark waved a hand halfheartedly, finally glad this is getting somewhere. "_I'm sure you know how I tick… correct?_"

"I… think so..?"

Dark sighed, shaking his head.

"_Honestly… I was sure you'd have figured me out by now… I guess I must explain it to you…_" He pressed a finger to his temple and rubbed it, getting exasperated at this. "_It's practically my sole purpose to break you… in more ways than one…_"

"I figured that…"

"But, _I won't have it if someone were to take that from me… I will break you when I'm good and ready… and now is _not_ the time…_"

Mephiles sat there with his mouth half open, a bit of a blank stare on his face before he shook his head with the clearing of his throat.

"I'm sorry…" Mephiles said. "But I have a hard time believing all of this after you've tricked me so many times…"

"_I suppose I deserve that as well…_" Dark muttered, twitching his torn ear again. "_But I must advise to you that this is indeed the truth, much to my dismay..._"

"Say that this was true, and Iblis was coming after me…" Mephiles brought up his point. "And say that he did manage to take over your body… how can I be sure you're not him right now?"

"_Questioning as usual? Good…_" Dark said. "_That is a good point… As I have said before, this is the inside of my own mind… and the one place Iblis cannot touch me. I managed to retreat the remaining parts of my psych here before Iblis could seize complete control. He has my homicidal instincts and parts of my logic in his command as we speak… and that is why I am more collected than usual… As long as we are here… the both of us are safe…_"

"I'm not staying here with you!"

"_I figured as much, and that is why I'm taking now to contact you… Iblis is on the very plane I woke up in, and that happens to be the plane that one can enter in their dreams…_"

"And that means..?"

"_Thick as ever!_" Dark spat, sitting up and glaring at him. "_You should have taken note in the return of your memories as well as the return of your nightmares! He is attacking you when you are most vulnerable! He is trying to break you with the very past that I kept hidden from you!_"

"You… kept it hidden for a reason?"

"_Not to help you, that was for sure…_" Dark snorted and sat upside down on the couch, his feet hanging over the back as his quills hung limply over the edge. "_At the time, I suppressed them because it was part of my plan for taking over. If you didn't have those memories present, you were much more focused and I was able to take control of you easier. You were a mess when they started getting in the way, so I shoved them away in the deepest, darkest corner of your mind, the very place I was spawned…_"

"I figured it had been you from the start…"

"_Ah, yes… but their return is not my doing…_" Dark shook his head as he stared at the ceiling fan above his head, his eyes following one of the blades briefly. "_Iblis believes that you are much weaker when they return, and that is why some of the memories are triggered for no reason…_"

"Is that why I have that new power?"

"_No… that is present quite possibly to help you control them, if either of us could figure it out. I have a theory, however…_" Dark smirked as he slid off of the couch and crossed the room to the bookshelf and extracted a composition book from it. "_Here…_" He tossed it to Mephiles, who nearly dropped it. "_Read as much as you can, you won't be able to bring it with you…_"

Mephiles looked up at him incredulously and began flipping through the pages, finding hand written charts, paragraphs and side notes in handwriting like his own.

"'This new power seems to be triggered by certain contact points. Hand contacting arm triggers a memory that is linked to own, while the other's hand contacting own shoulder triggers an unpleasant memory of either or… while hand contact may trigger silly memories…'… Hmm… but I've been able to make contact without triggering it…"

"_I am aware of that… and for that, I'm still working on it…_" Dark grabbed the notebook and flipped a few pages forward and handed it back to Mephiles. "_This basic sketch will illustrate the current placement of us, and where you are really asleep and where Iblis is controlling me at this moment… give or take…_"

Mephiles took a look at it, seeing a simple drawing of him asleep on a bed, a line separating it from a simple drawing of Dark, slit pupils in eyes to point it out, surrounded by a flame aura, and both hedgehogs with a cloudlike thought bubble that merged in the middle, a couch and a chair in it with Dark lying on the couch and Mephiles reading something labeled "Notes".

Mephiles blinked and looked up to see Dark lying on the couch as drawn, and then he looked at the cover at the notebook to see that "Notes" was written on it.

"Ha, ha…" Mephiles said dryly, shaking his head. "I could have done without the pictures…"

"_But pictures make it easier to understand… and I wasn't about to give you a hands-on experience…_" Dark smirked. "_I assume you get it now?_"

"I'm still suspicious…"

"_I don't blame you… I have been a conniving little beast to you, but this is one of those situations were you must team up with your greatest enemy for the greater good… Besides…_" Dark added with a purr. "_I'm sure you want to be the one to get rid of me… and only after there has been a battle to prove to me that I have indeed been belittling you…_"

"Almost like you read my mind…"

"_It's not all that hard…_" Dark scoffed. "_You can do the very same with mine if you learn to fine tune it… It's a skill that requires practice, and I have nearly a decade worth of practice behind me… though, at how well I've seen you progress in things… I don't think it would take you very long to be right up there with me… Sadly… we can only read each other's minds… so if you were thinking of using it to read your friends… it won't work, and if it did… they keep certain things from you for both good and bad reasons…_"

"Why would they hide anything from me?"

"_For your own good…_" Dark raised an eyebrow. "_That time last month when you caught that bad fever in the hospital, Shadow lied. He said nothing happened after you fainted… but really, you started having a fever induced seizure, and was blathering like a fool when it all stopped. He lied so you wouldn't be so upset…_"

Mephiles frowned.

"I thought he was keeping something from me…" He huffed. "But like you said… it was probably better that I didn't know that…"

"_Wise choice…_" Dark said, scratching behind his ear. "_I suppose I could tell you other things, but that would just tick you off more…_" He looked up and continued. "_Anyway… I need you to be careful, at least until I can resume my proper role…_"

Mephiles growled and threw the notebook in Dark's face.

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"_True…_" Dark pushed the notebook off his face, letting it hit the ground with a flutter of pages. "_But I _can _advise you, even if you are too stubborn to take my advice…_"

Mephiles snarled and got up, heading for the door which, from his experience inside of heads, meant that that was the way out.

"Wait!" Dark sat up and held a hand out, hoping Mephiles want leaving just yet. "_You haven't learned everything about this yet!_"

"I've had enough of this bull…" Mephiles folded his ears back.

"_How can you call it that if you were telling Shadow and that bat that it was a warning?!_" Dark got off the couch and folded his hands together to show that he was pleading now.

"First off, her name is 'Rouge'!" Mephiles spun around and let his quills and fur stand on end. "'That bat' has a name, and it's 'Rouge'! Get it right! And secondly, I was sick! How can I be sure that wasn't just a figment that you fabricated to use me?!"

"_I am beyond such childish attempts of trickery!_" Dark shot back. "_If I wanted to trick you, I would have twisted your thoughts, not your fantasies! Please! I-"_

But Mephiles was out the door and gone out of sight.

Dark was in a state of shock. Perhaps, this was how he made Mephiles feel most of the time…

The demon's hands clenched into tight, shaking fists and he let loose an escalating growl that became a roar of fury as he let his anger and frustration take over. The last thing he remembered seeing before he blacked out was the bookcase he was toppling over, half glad that Iblis hadn't taken his rage from him…

* * *

Mephiles stirred and opened his eyes slowly, taking a moment to adjust them and realize that it was dark in the hotel room.

He felt a hand to his forehead and was glad to find that his fever was gone again, hopefully for the last time.

Crawling to edge of the bed, he found that Shadow was curled up between his and Rouge's bed, upon which he could see that the bat was asleep on as well.

Peering at the clock he could see that it was quarter till midnight, and wondered if he should tell them about his talk with Dark now, or in the morning…

_Maybe I should wait till morning… They might just think it was the fever again…_ He thought grimly, shaking his head and falling back on the bed to curl up again. _Maybe Dark isn't lying… but, then again… why shouldn't he be? Argh! I'm so confused!_

Mephiles grabbed the pillow and pulled it over his head, hoping that morning would come soon so he could start talking about all of this.

* * *

You honestly thought that I would not use Dark again? XD

Anyway... it seems as if everything came to bite him in the butt, so now he needs help from the very guy who hates him and wants him dead...

Irony...

This is turning into one wild ride. :D

See you next time!


	8. Losing Sanity

Ooh, so everyone loved the return of Dark, I see :D

That's great. He's going to play a big part in this story.

This chapter is going to explore a bit of Dark's psyche, helping you see just how he ticks, and his similarities to Mephiles. I have to say, the chapter was a bit fun to write.

Enjoy.

* * *

Mephiles found himself having returned to the therapy room after he had fallen asleep again. But to his surprise, the entire room seemed like a disaster hit it.

The bookcase was knocked over, and half splintered, volumes of books shredded and maimed, pages littering the floor, gouges decorated the walls, having shred through the wallpaper and to the drywall, wires of electrical equipment torn out of their casings, sparking, and the couch and chair overturned and chunks of them ripped out of them and strewn across the room. The only thing that seemed untouched was the computer, the desk it was on and the swivel chair before it, which now had Dark spinning around in it slowly, giggling alarmingly as he chewed on the cord of a mangled pencil sharpener, not once looking up to see a disturbed Mephiles starting at him in shock.

Mephiles trailed his eyes on the cord that Dark was chewing on, and saw that it was still plugged in.

Mephiles knew that he would never wish electrocution on Dark, even if he was a demon. Stepping around the mess in the middle of the room, Mephiles wrapped his fingers around the plug and pulled it out of the outlet, then tugged the cord out of Dark's drooling mouth, Dark grunting in protest.

"As much as I hate you..." Mephiles frowned. "I wouldn't like to see anyone die like that from stupidity… especially you… It just doesn't seem like a fitting end…"

Dark tilted his head to the side and squinted before grinning in such a way, Mephiles jumped. It was not at all like Dark's smirk he had come to hate.

"_Hello… have we met before?_"

Mephiles froze. This was not the Dark he knew. Not at all. Something was wrong.

"D-dark, are you _okay?_"

"_You know me? We _must _have met before…_" Dark look at him with a drunken gaze, eyes half closed and blurry, his face blushing a bit. "_It's funny… I can't seem to remember my own name right now… but it doesn't matter, now… Because you seem to know me…_"

Mephiles stood shock still at this. Something was wrong with Dark.

Dark giggled again and leaned forward, slipping out of the chair only to be caught by Mephiles, who held his hands out on instinct.

"Dark?"

"_I see colors now… colors that weren't meant to be… Flashing in front of my eyes… they taunt and laugh at me…_" Dark snickered in a rhyming tone of voice, his eyes flickering from side to side, scanning the room, but not staring at Mephiles once. "_… Should I follow them? Or should I stay put? Watch them with my eyes? Or maybe catch them on foot?_"

Mephiles frowned and against better judgment felt a hand to the demon's forehead, finding to his surprise that Dark had one heck of a fever.

"Dark… a-are… you _sick?_"

"_Who's Dark? It's all dark in here, friend…_" The demon snickered, shaking his head. "_It's everywhere… it's all I can comprehend…_"

Mephiles clenched his teeth together. It seemed that Dark shared some of his traits after all… and that was turning into a complete idiot when he was sick…

"_Oh dark, the darkness that dozes in the dusk!_" Dark had his tongue between his teeth, grinning goofily as he reached up and flicked Mephiles on the nose, who flinched. "_Throw it all away! You see a light wherever you go! You have to face it again and again and again and again!_"

Setting him down on the ground, wondering why he was even doing this, Mephiles slipped both hands under the overturned couch and threw all his weight into turning it right-side-up, which took a few tries. One of the legs was tweaked and made the couch wobble, so he picked up a book off the ground and slide it under the leg to hold it steady.

Then he walked back over to the demon on the floor and slipped his hands under him to lift him off the ground, finding him to be very limp as he carried him to the couch.

"If I helped him get that fever down, he might be able to answer my questions…" Mephiles shook his head as he spotted a mini fridge under the desk.

Looking inside, he found and ice pack in the otherwise empty fridge, and glanced around for something to wrap it in. He started looking through drawers and found a towel in there, which he wrapped around the ice pack and returned to where Dark was and placed it on his forehead, Dark not bothering to move which it touched him.

"Wonder what made him so sick…" Mephiles muttered, turning the chair right-side-up so he could sit down and wait. "I can tell that he must have had a rage fit, judging from the state of things here… so…" Mephiles trailed off and realized that the room felt a bit warm, too warm really…

Looking up at the thermostat, he saw that the dial had been turned up to a ridiculously high number.

"Dark said he doesn't care much for heat… I'll fix it for him, and maybe he won't be so cruel to me…" Mephiles nodded to himself and got up to fix the thermostat.

Within minutes of setting it to a proper temperature, Dark grunted and woke up slowly, finding himself not where he remembered blacking out at. Taking a look around the room, he could see the mess he had made, and couldn't help but snicker.

"_Sorry… I must have accidentally set the thermostat to very high…_"

Mephiles paused, wondering if this was just more blather from a delirious hedgehog demon. Dark saw this and began explained himself.

"_That thermostat controls my body temperature… if it's set too high I _will_ get a fever…_"

"No kidding?" Mephiles looked at it and saw that the written temperatures were between both hyper- and hypothermia. "Hmm… wish I had one when you were messing with me last month…"

"_You did… it was just not in the abyss…_" Dark sighed, pulling the ice pack off of his forehead. "_That's how I controlled your body temperature…_"

"What happened here? I was only gone for at least an hour, and I found you, about to electrocute yourself with a broken pencil sharpener…"

"_What..?_"

"You were chewing on the cord…" Mephiles trailed off when Dark looked absolutely bewildered. The look on his face was something Mephiles was not used to. Mephiles went to the other side of the room and picked up the item in question. "See? I unplugged it before it could spark… the insulation is nearly gone right here…"

"_I don't remember doing _that!" Dark sat up and shook his head. "_I remember tearing apart the bookcase before I zoned out… but that's all!_"

"Must be a rage fit…" Mephiles concluded, for once having to be the one to explain things to Dark. "I used to have them a while back… terrifying, they were…"

"_So, I should be over them soon?_"

"Oh no! Not with your anger issues!" Mephiles waggled a finger at Dark. "If you don't find a way to control them, they will ultimately take over…"

"_I like to be the one in control…_"

"I figured that…" Mephiles sighed. "Anyway… I didn't think you could get sick…"

"_True… When we were still connected, the reason you got so sick every time you did was because you were getting sick for the both of us…_"

"Oh, I hate you…"

"_However!_" Dark cut across him. "_Now that I no longer have the ties with you, I am finding that I have nothing to fight against illness, and therefore, I can be just a sick as you can… Like right now for instance… I have this bothersome headache that is annoying me to no means…_"

"Well, during your fever, you were talking about something about 'colors that were never meant to be'… and you couldn't seem to remember you own name…"

Dark cursed.

"_For how long!?_" He demanded, staring at Mephiles fiercely.

"Not very… but, boy, that was a sight I'll _never_ forget!" Mephiles laughed, thoroughly enjoying that he was causing the demon to be embarrassed. "It was almost _cute!_ You kept giggling, and you were asking me if we had met before! I felt so _sorry_ for you! You even drooled a bit!"

Dark screeched at that, infuriated that he had been so weak, even if it was just for a moment.

"_You _never_ saw that! Forget it! It never happened!_" A red aura erupted around him, before it dissipated quickly to his own shock and his eyes rolled back before he collapsed on the couch with a moan.

"Dark?" Mephiles was surprised and placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly to rouse him.

The demon opened his eyes slowly with a groan and peered at Mephiles sleepily.

"… _I have no idea what's going on with me… but the times I've been enraged since this mess started, I've blacked out, and I feel just a bit weaker…_" Dark said through clenched teeth, finding that saying any of that made him feel… uncomfortable? He had no experience with such a feeling before, and therefore had nothing to compare it with.

Mephiles then felt his own legs feel weak and he sat down before it got further.

"When did these times happen?"

Dark explained his approximate guess and Mephiles found it quite a coincidence for them to happen during his moments of illness and during a few of his bad memories, which he shared that with Dark.

Dark lifted his eyes to look at Mephiles completely, and frowned to himself, shaking his head.

"_No… It _can't_ be…_"

"What?"

"_If we aren't connected anymore… then why are you affected by my illness as well?_" Dark had noticed that Mephiles had feeling a bit weak kneed just like he was.

"Wait… you mean the ties are _not_ broken?!" Mephiles jumped up and the next thing he knew, Dark had caught him by the arm and pulled him back down into the chair.

"_Sit down! Do you _want _to faint!?_" He hissed aggressively. "_I'm sure that they are! I have not tried to fuse with you again, so there would be no reason that the ties are back!_"

"How can we be sure!?"

"_Lets test it!_" Dark said, letting go of his arm. "_Okay… have you had any more of those panic attacks again?_"

"Just one…"

"_Anything unusual about it at all?_"

"No… but Rouge said that I screamed and held my head after it before I fainted…"

"_I didn't have that happen… so we don't have a bodily connection any more… Anything else been happening to you after you got those new powers?_"

"I've been a bit mentally exhausted for the past couple of weeks…"

"_Same…_" Dark frowned. "_What if the new connection is our subconscious?_

"So, I won't be killed if you get killed?"

"_Not the first question I would have asked if I was you, but yes…_" Dark looked a bit annoyed at Mephiles for this being the first thing on his mind. "_If it is, then our brains are on the same wavelength, and that is why this is possible while you are asleep…_"

"Are you asleep, too?"

"_Have you been listening!?_" Dark seethed, baring his teeth as he bristled his fur and quills. "_Iblis has taken co-_"

Dark cut himself off sharply when he suddenly clutched his stomach with a hiss of pain, curling up slightly.

"Try controlling that anger of yours…" Mephiles offered, feeling his own mind cloud just slightly. "If you feel sick after every time you lose it… then stop…"

"… _It's not that easy…_" Dark grunted, taking a deep breath to start over. "_… As you've probably figured by now, I cannot control my anger one bit… besides…_" He added in a growl. "_… This hasn't started happening before now… after Iblis took control of my bod­-_"

He stopped suddenly and his demonic doubles of Mephiles' eyes widened as far as they could, as if realization was about to hit him like an oncoming train.

"D-dark?"

"_No… It _can't_ be…_" Dark muttered, shaking his head before jumping up and hurrying over to the mess of books on the floor and scrambling around to find something Mephiles was unsure of.

"Dark? What's up?"

"_No! This is unlikely! Preposterous!_" Dark dug through the papers frantically, scanning his eyes over them and tossing each one aside. "_Where is it!? Where are they!?_"

"What?"

"_The notes! Where are they?! It has all I know about this! I _need_ them!_" Dark shoved the toppled book case out of the way, tossing the unharmed books that were underneath it out of the way. "_My notes! Where did we put them!?_"

Mephiles cringed a bit when Dark's voice had reached an unbearable screech, and realized that he was getting out of control again.

"Dark… calm down and think for a moment…" Mephiles raised his hands up to try to catch his attention, and in a few seconds, he regretted doing so.

Dark snapped his head up and his eyes narrowed dangerously as his eyes lit up red with anger.

"_Calm down? CALM DOWN!? MY NOTES HAD EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT THIS IS IN THERE!!_" Dark roared, lunging at Mephiles and knocking the chair over as he did. Mephiles stared at him wide-eyed as Dark spat out: "_YOU MIGHT NOT GET IT, BUT-_"

It took Mephiles a moment to realize that Dark had collapsed sideways off of him, clutching his head in agony without so much as uttering a sound.

Mephiles pulled himself off of the ground and crawled over to Dark, seeing that his expression was one of extreme pain as he inhaled and exhaled deeply and quickly in hopes of countering it.

"… _Is this what I've put you through..?_"

"What?"

"… _My head is pounding… I can hardly think… and I feel so helpless… is this what it was like when I tried to take over..?_"

"Just about…" Mephiles turned his attention to the ceiling fan, before looking down and seeing that the notebook had slid under the desk, completely unharmed.

Mephiles crawled over there and retrieved it, Dark eyeing him carefully until he saw to his relief that the book was okay. Once Mephiles was back where he was, Dark snatched the notebook from his hands and hugged it close to his chest.

"Are you serious..?" Mephiles stared at him, taken aback by his protectiveness of the book.

"… _All I know about this is in here… Everything… I hardly have to write it… it does that on its own… except the charts and pictures… I did those myself…_" He smirked again, showing Mephiles that he was already recovering back to his usual insane self. "_… This is a _special_ notebook, and the more I learn about what I want it to be about, the more it keeps for me to read it over and contemplate…_"

Mephiles was hoping that Dark was just a little dizzy from his head pain, because this was getting more absurd as the time passed.

"… _Read the newest pages for me as I lie back down on the couch, please…_" Dark grinned as he pulled himself back on the couch while Mephiles sat on the floor. "_… Please… my brain feels too foggy for me to try to read it myself…_"

Mephiles flipped past the last pages he had read earlier and to his surprise, the next pages that had been blank now held new words.

"'It is possible that as Dark gives in more and more to his rage, that Iblis is drawing and draining that from him…'"

Dark cursed again.

"'It is also possible that Mephiles and Dark are linked through their minds, and when Mephiles enters a dream like state, most of the ill effects of Dark's power draining is transferred to Mephiles, regardless of dreaming or not…'"

It was Mephiles turn to curse.

"_I suppose you could counter it all by not falling asleep…_" Dark offered.

Mephiles frowned.

"I, unlike you, need to rest at the end of each day, otherwise I have 'ill effects' as well!" He couldn't believe such a suggestion.

"… _Really? That's fascinating…_" Dark seemed half amused. "_Anyway… are you able to delay sleeping… for, say… a couple of days on end?_"

"NO!" Mephiles shouted. "If I'm deprived of any of it, I start turning into a mess!"

"_Well, as the only other solution is for me to ease up on the anger… and we all know _that_ isn't going to happen overnight…_"

"Forget it! We're _both_ royally screwed!" Mephiles unintentionally tore a page out of the notebook, and soon had to clap his hands over his ears when Dark shrieked and grabbed the book and page from him.

"_DON'T JUST SIT THERE! GET ME SOME TAPE!_" Dark screamed frantically as Mephiles hurried over to the desk and handed it to the demon, who tore a long strip off of the dispenser, and clumsily repaired the page, then clutched the book to his chest again.

"Sorry…" Mephiles said nervously, folding his ears back as he slumped just a bit. "I didn't mean to…"

"… _Be careful next time, or I won't let you touch this again…_" Dark growled, baring his teeth at Mephiles.

"But, still… I can't be the only one who has to change a habit…" Mephiles said, shaking his head. "And sleep is a must… so at least _try_ to control that anger of yours…"

"_You're so weak, because you have no anger to control!_" Dark shot back at him.

Mephiles blinked.

"Uh, yes… I do… but I can keep it in check a majority of the time…"

"_It only makes you weaker…_" Dark muttered, clutching the book tighter.

"No, it doesn't…" Mephiles shook his head, realizing faintly that he was just giving Dark advice and the demon was actually responding. "You fail to realize that there are other things you can draw strength from, and _that_ is why you lost last time…"

"_I only lost because you had a heart attack!_" Dark hissed.

"Wait… I had a panic attack…" Mephiles said slowly. "You were going to hurt Jak, and that triggered a panic attack…"

"_I know the effects of a panic attack, and I am sure you cannot die from them!_" Dark growled. "_You lucked out… all those injuries contributed to temporarily weakening your heart, and your panic attack became a heart attack in the blink of an eye!_"

Mephiles paused and blinked for a moment.

"I _thought _that the effects of it felt a bit different…" He brushed it off with a shrug. "But still… you react too much on instinct and gut feelings… you need to tone it down for your own good right now…"

"_I _can't! _That is the problem!_"

"Why not?"

"_Because I am like the id of your mind! I react only on instinct as much as I can be rational! Instinct is what keeps me sane most of the time!_"

"You were never sane to begin with…"

Dark hissed under his breath as his response.

"Admit it, Dark… you're nuts!" Mephiles said, not really worried about what Dark could still do to him considering that the two were alone in the demon's mind, which no Shadow to pull him to safety.

"_You must be enjoying seeing me like this…_" Dark growled, narrowing his eyes at his good counterpart. "_Me, defenseless, weakening, and practically having to beg you to help me…_"

"I thought I would… but to be honest… I'm not…" Mephiles shrugged. Seeing Dark confused, he continued to explain. "I really don't think that this is the way for you to go…"

"_I'm not going to die from this if I can help it…_"

"See… that's what I mean…" Mephiles scratched an ear in thought. "For you… I'd would think it's after the both of us have been locked in a fight for a good long several hours… maybe more… both of us equally injured, and you still refusing to lose to me. I can almost hear you screaming at me right now…"

"_Just about how I want it…_" Dark snorted. "_Except in my fantasy, it's _you _who takes their last breath…_"

"That doesn't surprise me…"

There was a pause before Dark spoke up again.

"_Tell me… under normal circumstances, you would be trying to kill me… why are you just sitting there, and what made you help me?_"

Mephiles thought about it and finally gave his answer.

"I guess because I'm not like you. I see someone who needs help and I try to help first before I decide whether or not if they are a threat to me."

"_And I'm not a threat right now?_"

"To humor you, I could act like it if you want…"

"_Don't patronize me…_" Dark growled. "_I like it when all I have to do is clap my hands to make you jump… don't fake it…_"

"Well I tried…" Mephiles shook his head. "So, anyway… I still have to tell Shadow and Rouge about this, and as far I can tell, they think that the warning dream was just the fever getting to my head. They'll think I've gone mad if I tell them that you really do need help and that this isn't a trick…"

"_Mobians' minds are simple, yet complex, Mephiles…_" Dark said, shaking his head as he stretched out on the ripped up couch for a moment before curling up slightly. "_The answer is right there, but they refuse to accept something that contradicts what they've known… Just as you walked out of here, calling all of this 'Bull'… Last month should be all the proof of that if I may…_"

Mephiles raised his eyebrows at the use of his name again. It really spooked him when Dark didn't call him by his dreaded nickname… which meant that Dark was definitely serious.

"The only way I can get them to believe us is just about nothing short of bringing them here or getting you out of here…"

Dark's ears perked up.

"_That might work… but I have no idea how to get out of this plane. And I have a feeling that Shadow would attack me, and since I lack my homicidal self at the moment, I have no desire to attack him as well…_"

The way Dark was talking about Shadow… his hiss in his voice was missing, and Mephiles didn't see a flicker of insanity behind Dark's eyes at all… creepy, since it was always there at the mention of Shadow's name.

"Would a Chaos Emerald work?" Mephiles offered, half testing Dark to see his reaction.

Dark shrugged, making Mephiles jump. He had been expecting Dark to squeal and smirk deviously at the thought of holding an Emerald in his claws. Instead Dark seemed emotionless about it.

"_I doubt it… An Emerald can't solve everything…_"

"For me, it has…"

"_That's just you… but we're talking about inducing travel between planes of existence. It would require more power than just one Emerald… and I highly doubt you want to touch that red Emerald again anytime soon…_"

"You think more Emeralds would work?"

"_I really doubt it, but then again… I'm not myself at the moment…_" Dark shrugged.

"Great… _now_ I have to tell them that we should collect the Emeralds to bring my demonic half to our plane of existence…." Mephiles clutched at his head to illustrate that this entire situation was beginning to give him a headache. "You realize that they might think I'm disturbed again and I could end up tied down 'for my own safety'?"

"_Collect the Emeralds?_" Dark tilted his head, before grinning. "That_ is a good idea! Iblis might try to get them, so if you get them before he does, you can stop him from getting more powerful!_" Dark rolled over to where he was upside down on the couch again and watched the ceiling fan again. "_Heh… ever notice how dizzy you get while watching these things?_"

"Dark! Focus!" Mephiles snapped, not believing that he had to keep his demon side from trailing off. Dark must have been getting loopier as the time passed. "How can Iblis get those Emeralds if he's on another plane?"

"_Simple, silly!_" Dark giggled out-of-character-ish, which was making Mephiles fur stand on end. "_We have the power to travel through time, and Iblis has powers we don't… he's fused with the dark half of us… Me! Not really complete enough to become Solaris… but I'm sure the both of us together makes enough to travel through timelines, if not existences! Heh! You look like a ball of fluff!_" Dark pointed out when every inch of Mephiles' fur and quills poofed out.

"Dark! Stay focused!"

"_I'm afraid I can't… after all… I _am _insane! Anger is what kept me focused… and now… I see colors again! Heh!_" Dark pointed up at the ceiling and clapped, making Mephiles stare at him with a mix of confusion and concern.

Mephiles shook his head and backed away to the door to leave again, figuring that he had been there too long already. Before he exited, he glanced at the thermostat, and saw that it had moved itself back up a bit, so he set it back to normal before closing the door…

* * *

Mephiles awoke slowly to find himself being shaken roughly. He lifted his eyes and saw that Shadow had him by the shoulders and was shaking him frantically.

When Shadow saw that he was awake, he let him go, and Mephiles fell back on the bed, sitting up slowly and wondering what had happened.

"Thank God!" Shadow exclaimed. "Rouge! He's okay!"

Before Mephiles could ask anything, he found himself being pulled into a tight hug, tight enough to restrict proper breathing.

"… Rouge… I can't… breathe…" Mephiles managed, gasping harshly when Rouge let him go.

"We've been trying to wake you up for almost an _hour!_" She said loudly, and Mephiles could see that both her and Shadow looked distressed at this. "We thought you were in a coma or something! You were breathing, but you weren't responding!"

"I was shaking you, but you didn't even groan! Are you okay?!"

"Calm down, guys…" Mephiles felt his face go red from feeling bad about making his friends frantic. "I'm okay… It was… well… it's tough to explain… and I really hope you will believe me…"

"What?"

Mephiles took a deep breath and shifted his gaze at his feet before launching into his explanation, how Dark needed his help, where he was at, how this coincided with some of the strange things happening to himself, what had happened to Dark, and what could happen.

Before he could finish, Shadow started laughing nervously.

"It was probably a bad dream…" He dismissed.

Mephiles glared at him.

"I thought so too, but this all makes sense…" He said back.

"Meph… what if Dark is just trying to trick you again?"

"I though he was too, until I saw him the second time…" Mephiles shook his head. "He showed no signs of wanting to get the Emeralds, he didn't want to kill you, and he rhymed nonsense when he had a fever! Dark is not the same!"

"Then let him be that way…" Shadow growled, shaking his head. "I couldn't care less about the guy… he almost got you killed several times already…"

"But, Shadow! Dark has been getting sick!"

"Let him…"

"Every time he's gotten mad, he's gotten sick, and that in turn is affecting me every time I go to sleep!"

Shadow was about to say something before he stopped when the words sunk in. Then he growled.

"That ba-"

"Shadow!" Rouge shouted over him, but Mephiles knew what he had said.

"Guys!" Mephiles said even more loudly. "I fear that if Dark loses control on his anger too much, that he could be taken over completely, and that's bad for all of us! Please, he's _begging_ for our help!"

There was a silence and Mephiles sighed, sitting down and rubbing his head with his hand.

"I know that Dark has been a monster to us…" He said slowly. "But if you boil it down, he's the other me, and it would seem that we can't have one without the other…"

"Mephiles… he's a demon!"

"Yes… but, y'know… he's pretty intelligent…" Mephiles brought up. "You realize that his entire mind is set up like a therapy office? Books, a computer… the works! It's just that now, he's managed to shred it up when I left earlier, and I think that had an effect on him…"

"How?"

"Remember when he threw those orbs in your head, Shadow?" Mephiles looked at the hybrid hedgehog. "You got hurt by that, even though you weren't there…"

"I remember seeing him in pain…" Rouge backed it up.

"True…" Shadow said slowly.

"Well, I think his mind is fractured now, and with Iblis controlling what makes him the Dark we know… Dark is really a lot like me…" Mephiles cringed at admitting that. "Anyway… When I was just in there, every time he's gotten mad, he's had to stop because he's in pain… I figured that if we get him to our plane of existence, we can delay Iblis' plans long enough for us to right this…"

"With what?"

"The Chaos Emeralds… all of them…"

"It's a trap!" Shadow said loudly. "He's trying to trick you!"

"No, I made that assumption on my own… he thinks that was can collect them to keep them from Iblis… but it was my thought to use them to bring him here… but he doubts it…"

"So… you said he had no real interest in the Emeralds?"

"Yeah… he wanted to laugh and watch the ceiling fan…"

"This certainly sounds weird…" Rouge said, frowning.

"I think we should help him…" Mephiles added.

"But…"

"I'm worried about being wrong too, but at least we know we can keep him in check, as opposed to a super charged Iblis…"

"Good point…"

"So, I guess my memory search is on hold until we solve this…" Mephiles said with an air of disappointment. Then he sighed.

He hated having to wait...

* * *

Well, this is getting interesting.

Well, so Dark is turning into a nut, and they have to bring that nut here to save the world...

Go figure XD

See ya next time.


	9. The First Emerald

Okay... been a while... couple of weeks I think...

Anyway... nice long chapter and so action later for you having to wait so long :D

Oh... and I started a forum here on FF for "Teaching Darkness" you guys can use to... do whatever you want to do in regards to discussing the series. I hope you can check it out... I need topics. You can find a link on my profile...

Have fun!

Oh, remember... November 14th not only marks the one year anniversary of "Teaching Darkness", but also Mephiles' two year "birthday"... of you count his debut as his birthday XD

Interesting coincidence that I started writing the series on his birthday... I hadn't noticed until recently... ^^;

Enjoy the chapter.

* * *

So the search began for the seven Chaos Emeralds, or at least the rest that they didn't know where they were at the moment.

"The red on is at the museum…" Mephiles noted, checking off the color on the scrap of paper. "I don't want to touch that until we have the rest if we can help it…"

"I have a vague idea where to find the green one…" Shadow added. "As for the purple and blue… we lost track of them after you brought Rae back…"

"And I can see if Knuckles knows about any of the others…" Rouge said.

"Knuckles?" Mephiles looked up in confusion. "Who's Knuckles?"

"A friend of Sonic and the last of the Mobian Echidnas…" Shadow filled him in. "He's also the guardian of the Master Emerald…"

"There are more than just the Chaos Emeralds?" Mephiles frowned.

"Chaos, Super, the Master, Sol… The list goes on, but each set is for a different dimension, with the exception of the Chaos and Master… which are found here…" Shadow explained.

"Fascinating…" Mephiles shook his head lightly and looked back at the tiny list. "I suppose this all requires for us to use those Emerald radars, if I'm not mistaken…"

"But we only have two…"

"Looks like two of us have to share…" Mephiles said. "So… who wants to drag me around?"

"I could go for it alone…" Shadow offered.

"And I think I can keep up with Rouge better…"

"I warn you though…" Rouge added. "When I have to go to see Knuckles, you might have to be careful…"

"Why?"

"He… doesn't really like visitors, and he thinks with his fists…" Rouge directed her attention to the ceiling. "That, and he almost always thinks I'm there to steal the Master Emerald from him…"

"You wouldn't do that!" Mephiles laughed before realized that he was the only one laughing. "Oh, c'mon… not you?"

"I used to be a treasure hunter before I became a full time agent at GUN…" Rouge said, grinning a bit at the memory of it. "One of the best. Had a great eye for spotting gems and treasures…"

"And anything else that was shiny." Shadow added, earning a hit in the back of the head. "Just telling it as it was!" He said defensively.

"Well, anyway…" Rouge continued, glaring at Shadow. "A few times, I may have tried to take the Master Emerald…"

"Any reason why?"

"It was shiny…"

Mephiles sighed, imagining a large sweat drop appearing on the side of his head.

"Honestly, you think you know a person…"

With the shake of the head, he flipped the switch of the radar of absentmindedly, jumping when it began to beep faintly.

"Hey, there's one nearby!" Shadow said. "Somewhere in the city, to be more accurate…"

"Oh, this is just perfect… not only is the city big…" Mephiles grit his teeth. "The people here who hate me are just going to go nuts when they think I'm looking for an Emerald here… no doubt it's already guarded… this is going to be a challenge…"

Mephiles gave a heavy sigh.

"You okay?" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow. "You've been kind of moody since the whole thing started…"

"I'll be fine…" Mephiles said, rubbing behind his ear slowly. "Really, I've had worse…"

"Are you sure?"

"I said I'm fine!" Mephiles snapped at him suddenly. "Let's just get this over with!"

Suddenly, he gasped and shuddered, tensing up for a moment.

"Mephiles?"

"I really don't like this…" He muttered, shaking his head. "The nuttier Dark gets, the more it affects me… I'm sorry… I'm going to have to check on him later… I don't trust him by himself…"

"He's in his own mind… what could he possibly do?"

"Let's see…" Mephiles said, ticking the numbers off on his fingers. "Set the thermostat up again… rip out the wiring of the computer that I think holds the remaining shred of himself on it… try to catch the fan… I could go on…"

"Please don't… I get the point..." Shadow rolled his eyes. "So I guess we need to find the Emerald that's here in Soleanna…"

"Yep…" Mephiles nodded, setting the radar down. "I don't think we should split up here, though… being as the entire city is under the impression that Dark was me… and considering what they did to me last time I was here…"

"You never told us anything about that…" Rouge said, Mephiles flashing an unreadable expression across his face quickly.

"I won't go into much detail…" Mephiles muttered, turning his attention back to the radar and toggling the switch idly. "But… they were… cruel… that's why I left for Westopolis, in hopes of finding you two. I knew that Shadow was still bitter towards me, but you were the first person to be kind to me, and I hoped that you could help me… It took me a few days to get to Westopolis, and it would have taken more if I hadn't been so scared of everyone around me…"

"What did they do?"

"About everything short of killing me and causing serious injury…" Mephiles was now tossing the radar in his hands. "I left once I overheard the possibility of them pushing me in the water…"

By now, it was a known fact that Mephiles could not swim, and was overwhelmed with fear if he ever fell in the water. Because of that, he despised water of most kinds.

"Anyway… let's just get this over with."

* * *

The entire day was spent searching all over the city. They started at one end, and worked their way in a spiral.

"Mephiles, you're never going to see any of the nice things around here if you keep staring at the ground…" Rouge tried to lighten his mood, Mephiles being unusually quiet the whole day.

Mephiles glanced up, only to lock gazes with a glaring citizen. Mephiles squeaked and shot his gaze to the ground again, watching his feet.

Shadow and Rouge both took note that Mephiles was carrying his tail between his legs, letting it curl around his right one, which was a sign that he was feeling really uneasy about this.

"I can't really see any nice things here…" Mephiles said quietly. "It's a city full of water and people who hate me, as well as it the city where my family died a Iblis' hands and where Dark was pretty much created. I can feel the people's hate radiating off of them and it's making my fur stand…"

Sure enough, his fur was standing on end, right down his back.

Rouge was about to make a suggestion of going to the gift shop, before remembering that they still had a restraining order that was still active until the next month. So instead, she suggested that they stop by a place to eat.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Mephiles said with a hint of dread. "They wouldn't let me even try to learn how to eat here… I don't think they'd let me eat here at all…"

"Relax…we'll find a loophole and exploit it in your favor." Shadow said with a hint of a grin.

"Are you allowed to do that?"

"Only as long as it's not breaking any rules…" Shadow grinned this time. "We could go to that Chinese food place we picked up your food from yesterday."

"That reminds me… what happened to my food from yesterday?" Mephiles had just realized that the container he had placed on the night stand was missing that morning.

"We put it in that mini fridge, otherwise it would spoil…"

"That would have been a shame…"

They found the food place and as suspected by Mephiles, the person at counter wasn't interested in what he wanted.

"I _told_ you this was a bad idea…" Mephiles said, shaking his head and sitting down at a table by the window.

"Hold on… I've got an idea…" Shadow said, waving a hand halfheartedly. "Okay… I see how this works…" He told the person behind the counter. "I'll have another order, this time with everything he wanted. Then I want you to set it down in front of him…"

"I said I'm not taking his order…"

"Ah, but see, that is _my_ order…" Shadow waggled a finger and grinned, showing off his fang in a cat like way. "And since I'm paying for it, I'm free to do what I want with it. And I decided to give it to him."

"I don't see why you waste your time with that demon…"

The sound of a chair being knocked over and the door opening, the bell jingling happily in contrast to the mood as both Shadow and Rouge turned their attentions to where Mephiles had been before he stormed out of the establishment.

"Mephiles!" They both cried out as Shadow went after him.

Rouge clenched a fist and turned her attention furiously at the cashier.

"You. Are. Heartless!" She seethed, her wings flapping enough to make her feet hover off the ground as she leaned her weight into the countertop. "How can you call him that when he's not?!"

The cashier scoffed.

"Oh, c'mon. I know that he's the little monster that was sealed away after the lab accident eleven years ago."

"Well, I've been living with him at my house for eleven months and I can tell you that he's not a monster _or_ a demon!"

"He may have changed his appearance…" The cashier said quite coolly. "But that does not change the fact of over a decade ago. His creation killed those scientists and our duke."

"Well, recent light of research point that he's not the one to blame…" Rouge shot back. "In fact, he was a victim of it as well, and aside from the princess, he was the only surviving victim there. And all you people do to him is be cruel!" She saw that the food was ready to be taken anyway, and dug several gold Rings from her purse, slamming them forcefully on the counter. "Keep the change… not like you deserve it anyway…"

Still hovering a bit, she made her way out the door wit the food to find Shadow and Mephiles. Which wasn't hard to find at all.

Shadow was trying to calm Mephiles down, who was yelling at the top of his voice, trying to pull his arm from Shadow.

"I HATE IT HERE! I _HATE_ IT! EVERYONE HERE HATES ME! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! I JUST WANT TO _LEAVE!_"

"But, Meph! We need those Emeralds before Iblis gets them!"

Before Mephiles could respond, he tensed up and clutched his free hand to his chest, tears stinging his eyes as he took deep slow breaths, a whimper present under his voice.

"Meph?!"

"Mephiles! What's wrong?!" Rouge was already at the scene, setting the food down as she helped Shadow ease him to the ground. Once his other arm was let go, he clutched that to his chest as well.

"… Sh-sharp pain… it hurts…" He managed, clenching his teeth and shaking. "… ah… ah… h-help…"

"Breathe through your nose, and think happy thoughts…" Shadow offered, trying to help.

Mephiles did, and within a few minutes, he slumped back into Rouge, who had been helping him lean back, and sighed, loosening the grip on his chest, and wiping his forehead off with his hand.

"What happened?" Rouge asked.

Mephiles opened his eyes dizzily and looked up.

"… It felt like a panic attack…" He explained quietly. "… But I don't know what triggered it…"

"How are you feeling now?"

"… Like I'm going to be sick…" He frowned; face a bit pale as he clutched a hand to his stomach. "… I'm sorry… but I couldn't take any more of that… so I just left…"

"It's not your fault…"

"… I obviously didn't have Soleanna in mind when I was saving the world last month…" His hand loosened a bit. "… I'm starting to feel a little better now… sick feeling's going away…" He tried to make it to his feet, but clutched a hand tightly to his chest again, clenching his teeth together firmly as he fell back.

"What's wrong?" Shadow and Rouge were getting worried.

"… I dunno… but it feels like I'm being stabbed…" Mephiles grunted in pain, taking short breaths. "… It's going away now… but, God… that _hurt…_"

He tried to get up again, but Shadow and Rouge both placed their hands on his shoulders and held him down to his surprise.

"Let me up…"

"Not right now…" Shadow shook his head. "You've obviously been working yourself too much… that was probably why that happened…"

"… Seriously?"

"That… and you're anxious right now…"

"… No… I'm not…"

"Mephiles… you're in a place where people mistake you for someone else, who has a bad reputation with them…" Rouge said. "You're scared… we can tell…"

"You need to stop babying me…" He growled out of nowhere, initially shocking Rouge for being addressed like that.

There was a pause, and suddenly a hand smacked into his face, earning a yelp from him.

"I've had about enough of this attitude problem, Mephiles…" Rouge told him edgily while he held a hand to his face, staring up at her with a bit of shock in his expression. "Since this whole mess started, you have been moody, you tried to hurt Shadow on purpose, you ran off at least twice, you refused to talk to Shadow for a short time, you _blamed_ Shadow for what happened to your family, and you are letting the people get to you…"

"Well…"

"This is not how you are." Rouge cut across him. "Since this has been happening, you have been acting very different than yourself. And for the last time… I do _not_ baby you!" She added loudly.

Mephiles and Shadow couldn't help but laugh at this.

"What's so funny?" Rouge raised an eyebrow, staring at Shadow who was laughing the hardest.

"Remember? I told you not to baby him when he moved in…" Shadow snickered. "In a way, it's ironic."

"He's right…" Mephiles nodded.

"Anyway… I want you to stop this and try to enjoy the good of this, okay?" Rouge said to him. "Too much of this stress is going give you a heart attack, and Dr. Thizon is about fifty or so miles away… that means he would be able to see you soon enough if you do have one…"

"So I'll just have the heart attack in Westopolis, then…" Mephiles said before cringing at the glare Rouge gave him. "I was just kidding!" Mephiles tossed his hands up to shield his face.

"Don't even _joke _about that!" Rouge barked, her hand in the air.

"Can I get up now?"

"No! Shadow is going to carry you on his back!"

Shadow blinked. He would have liked to volunteer himself… but, all the same, and least this was helping Mephiles.

However, Mephiles protested.

"I'm quite capable of walking myself…" He said.

"I _know_ you are! I just don't want you fainting suddenly!"

Mephiles blinked, a bit stunned by that before regaining himself.

"It's not like I faint _all_ the time! I can _walk!_" He was getting annoyed by this now. "I'm walking and that's final!"

Several minutes lead to him being on Shadow's back anyway.

"You guys are way too overprotective…" He growled, rolling his eyes as they passed the plaza, citizens staring in a bit of confusion.

"Hey, shut up! At least we care!" Shadow said loudly, glad that Mephiles weighed at least ten pounds less than himself.

Mephiles responded by yanking at a quill, when made Shadow clench his teeth.

"You care too much…" He said simply. "You realize that someday, you'll have to let me take a few more risks… this overprotection thing is not really preparing me for the real world…"

"We'll think about that when you're eighteen…" Shadow half joked, wincing a bit.

"You're forgetting what I'm capable of…" Mephiles reminded him. "Don't forget how well I fought Dark…"

"We know… we know… we were there…" Rouge reminded him back.

"How could I forget? You were there… and you were there…" Mephiles was counting off names on his fingers. "And Rae was there and Jak was there and Krystal and Sharpe and Thizon helped me after all of that." The last part was a run on sentence, as if to make his point. "I think that's seven… Heh… Seven… like the amount of Chaos Emeralds we need to find…"

"You're just babbling, aren't you?" Shadow said.

"Yep!"

"Just checking…" Shadow paused for a moment. "Hey Rouge? What does the radar say about the Emerald?"

"It's close… I think it could be over there…" She looked up and pointed to a museum.

Shadow sweatdropped.

"It's always a museum… isn't it, Shadow?" Mephiles asked, staring at the front door. "The red one is at a museum… and you said that the green one was at a museum… I wonder what color this one is..."

"We won't know until we go look, I guess…" Shadow said. "Hey… uh… think I can put him down now? It's kinda awkward…"

"That depends… Mephiles… how are you feeling now?"

"Like I said before… I'm fine…"

"Are you just saying that… or do you mean it?"

"Now really… have I ever lied to you before?"

"Not intentionally… no…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing…" Rouge shook her head. "Okay… but if you start feeling sick… just let us know…"

"It's just a Chaos Emerald. What could possibly go wrong?" Mephiles said as he slid off of Shadow's back.

"Well… that red one reacts badly with you…" Shadow brought up. "And a mix of the red, purple and blue ones sent you into a month long coma…"

"What are the chances that this one does the same?"

Shadow and Rouge narrowed their eyes.

"What?" Mephiles shrugged. "I've already had traumatic flashbacks, fits of rage, night terrors, dream connections with Dark and a near heart attack experience this week alone. The laws of odds should allow this one to be a freebee…"

"Life isn't that predictable, Meph…"

"It should be…"

"Let's just get this over with…" Shadow rolled his eyes. "I wanna make sure we get these Emeralds before Dark comes after them…"

"Iblis…"

"Huh?"

"Iblis has control of Dark…" Mephiles corrected.

"We can't really be sure that this isn't one of Dark's plans…"

"True… but it doesn't hurt to be sure…"

"It does hurt if the guy has the same defensive properties as you do… but can use them better…"

"Are you saying that I can't hold my own?"

"Not really… you're just not a fighter…" Shadow shrugged.

"I can be if I need to be!"

"But you don't like doing it…"

"…"

"…"

"Good point…"

* * *

"No…"

"What do you mean 'No'?!" Shadow barked at the curator. "The whole world is at stake, _again, _and we need that Emerald!"

"Highly suspicious that you happen to want the Emerald with that-"

"If someone calls him a 'demon' or anything of the sort one more time… I will personally make sure their life is miserable…" Shadow muttered, having seen Mephiles flinch at what was obviously going to be said. "Just try to get to know him or something! He's a really nice person!"

"That's just one person's opinion…"

As the little verbal fight went on, Mephiles was getting nervous again. He took a step back and accidentally bumped into the display for a vase, which caused it to wobble and slide off of the pedestal.

Mephiles twitched an ear as the sound of ceramic scraping against marble, and he reacted fast, clapping his hands together to summon a surge of his Chaos Energy, and focus on wrapping it around the vase. The vase stopped falling several inches from the ground. Mephiles looked up to see all three persons staring at him.

"I s-saved your vase…" Mephiles stuttered, holding it up before setting it back on the display.

"I see that…" The curator said slowly, staring at Mephiles, who shivered.

"Please don't do that… I don't like people staring at me…" He muttered, looking at the ground and shivering again.

"You okay, Meph?" Shadow took note in his trembling.

"I have this bad feeling about something… Like something bad is going to happen soon…" Mephiles frowned. "I-I just can't shake that feeling…"

"I'd like to say that it's probably nothing, just to make you feel better…" Shadow narrowed his eyes as he looked around, ear twitching. "But given the circumstances… I'm not so sure… Sit down…"

"I don't-"

"Just do it…"

Mephiles slid to the ground just as Shadow charged up a Chaos Spear and flung it behind Mephiles, who's shot wide open as he felt the heat of it come too close to his ear.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING SHADOW?!" He screamed as his fur stood straight up.

"Yeah! What?!" Rouge asked loudly. "This is a museum of artifacts!"

Shadow frowned and pointed behind Mephiles and for a moment, there was silence. Then an unfamiliar laugh in a familiar voice.

"DARK?!" Mephiles jumped and scrambled up to run back over to his friends. "No! Wait! That's not Dark!"

"… _Well spotted, hedgehog…_" Dark's voice whispered into hearing range, though it wasn't Dark's tone. It was comparable to a hiss of a slow burning fire. "_… What gave me away..?_"

"I could hear your feet tapping against the tiles… Mephiles was standing still…" Shadow said coolly, charging another Chaos Spear in his hand and gestured for Mephiles to make an orb. "No doubt you're here for the Emerald, am I right?"

…

"What's going on?" The curator whispered to Rouge, who half shrugged and got into a fighting stance.

"Just about the same thing that happens to us often… someone is trying to kill Mephiles for some kind of greater power thing…"

"Wait… does that mean..?"

"Mephiles is really powerful, and he's on our side? Yes…"

"I was going to ask that there's… nevermind…"

"It's best if you just get away from here before you get hurt… no doubt Iblis won't care about casualties… but Mephiles likes to avoid them…"

"… I'm… confused…"

"Just get out of here... or hide…"

…

Iblis laughed raucously, and stepped into view from around the corner, eyes closed and hands behind his back.

Dark wasn't lying. It was Dark's body alright… torn ear and nearly identical to Mephiles… but there was a difference in stance and posture. Dark always had an arrogant air about himself, perhaps even crossing his arm and staring down at you.

But this one's was just downright different. He took slow and long strides and seemed uninterested about anything.

Mephiles froze and started shaking horribly, teeth clenched, fur and quills on, tail between his legs and eyes wide.

Shadow saw this and stepped in front of Mephiles.

"You didn't answer my question. It's rude not to introduce yourself…"

"… _Forgive me… I'm not one for introductions…_" Iblis grinned and looked up, showing off his glowing bright green eyes that had mixed with Dark's. Mephiles inhaled sharply and continued shaking. "_… So this is Mephiles…? The little hedgehog that my 'brother' has had so much trouble with..? He doesn't seem like much… he's shivering…_"

"Meph?" Shadow looked behind himself and saw that Mephiles was almost in a shocked trance. "Mephiles! Snap out of it!"

Mephiles jumped slightly.

"… I'm s-sorry, Shadow… b-but… Oh, God! He k-killed my family!" Mephiles clenched his hands more tightly and the orb got bigger. Shadow frowned when he saw Mephiles eyes start glowing purple, his Chaos Aura flaring up. "HE KILLED THEM, SHADOW! HE _KILLED_ THEM!"

"Mephiles! Calm down! We have no idea how powerful he really is! And with Dark's power, he's probably worse!"

"I DON'T CARE! I WANT HIM DEAD!" Mephiles roared and flung the orb at Iblis before charging after him, claws out and teeth bared.

"MEPHILES!" Rouge and Shadow both shouted.

"YOU KILLED THEM, YOU MONSTER! THEY WERE JUST _HEDGEHOGS! _NORMAL EARTH HEDGEHOGS!" Mephiles clenched a hand into a fist and swung it at Iblis only to be caught by the wrist, Iblis not batting an eyelash.

Mephiles' eyes widened in confusion before Iblis caught him by the throat, causing Mephiles to struggle violently as he was lifted a several inched off the ground.

"… _You're just not worth it now…_"

"… L-let me g-go…" Mephiles choked, clawing at Iblis' arm weakly, his face starting to turn a bluish tinge.

"LET HIM GO!" Shadow roared.

"… _Gladly…_" Iblis grinned and flung Mephiles at Rouge and Shadow, making him hit the pedestal that held the vase that he had just saved. The vase tottered on the edge for a moment before crashing to the ground in front of Mephiles, who was on his front.

"… I… j-just saved that…" He breathed weakly, his face taking on his normal color again.

"Mephiles… there are more important matters right now… like WHAT WERE YOU _THINKING?!_" Rouge helped him to his feet, Mephiles rubbing a hand to his neck. Rouge pulled his hand away to find a hand sized bruise starting to show. "Mephiles… are you okay?"

"… He was st-strangling me…" Mephiles looked at the ground. "… S-sorry… I was just mad… I-I… Sorry… th-that was a stupid move…"

"Just next time… don't go out on your own…"

"… S-sorry…" Mephiles winced. It was a little tough to breathe deeply with that bruise.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"… I should be… I heal faster…"

Still, Rouge noticed a bit of a stumble to Mephiles' stance. Watching him closely, she whispered to Shadow: "… We should take the Emerald and run… Mephiles is hurt..."

Mephiles was about to protest, but Rouge "shushed" him.

Shadow nodded and whispered: "I'll distract him… Rouge, get the Emerald… I'll catch up to you…"

Rouge nodded and slipped out of sight, Mephiles about to follow, but Shadow held him back.

"… If you leave… he'll follow…" Shadow explained in a whisper to a confused Mephiles. "… Wait until Rouge gets the Emerald and we'll split and meet out front and run…"

Mephiles nodded slowly and shifted his stance a bit to regain his balance, finding it inexplicably strange that his was starting to have both balance and vision problems.

"… Sh-shadow… I th-think he hit a p-pressure p-point…" Mephiles stuttered, his eyes giving a tired expression.

Then without warning, he collapsed to the floor in a heap.

"MEPHILES!"

* * *

Gotta leave it at a cliff hanger here...

I... just gotta... you kind expect that by now ;P

See ya next time!


	10. Talk With Dark

Okay... left it at a big cliffie so I'm continuing.

Today is a big day! November 14th 2008! Exactly one year ago, I started the "Teaching Darkness" series... and exactly two years ago today... Sonic Next Gen was launched in North America... and since it was released here first... that makes November 14th Mephiles' "Birthday"!

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY MEPHILES!

That also makes it Elise's, The Duke of Soleanna's, Iblis' and Silver's as well if you follow the pattern. Happy second to them as well :D

I'm making sure to submit this chapter at midnight... or as close as possible.

3... 2... 1...

Have fun :D

* * *

"MEPHILES!" Shadow barked the moment the crystal hedgehog hit the floor.

It was no use. Mephiles was out like a light.

Shadow cursed and brought his eyes up to glare at Iblis.

"If you hurt him at all, I _will_ kill you…"

Iblis simply laughed, earning another glare from Shadow, which deepened.

"… _It's no concern of mine if you want to save this pathetic little thing…_" He snickered. "_… But my goal is to rid the world of this nuisance…_"

"Whoa! Hold up! What do you have against him?"

"… _You have no idea… there's more to him than you can see… Dark the Demon failed time again in realizing that…_"

"Dark, huh? So you think you're worse than him? Just because you took over his body?"

"… _The matters are more complicated than that…_" Iblis tilted his head. "_… Myself, Dark the Demon and Mephiles the Hedgehog are all of the same connection... Because that little hedgehog was in the lab just as our time of creation happened… Dark was split from me, and became a parasite to Mephiles… Dark may be able to control Mephiles… and I can control Dark… but… there's still a matter of what Mephiles himself can do…_"

"And that is..?"

"… _Given the odds… he's likely to have more power dormant than Dark and myself combined due to his exposure to the radiation from the Solaris Project… now step aside…_" He held up a hand with flames. "_… And let me finish what I should have done eleven years ago…_"

Shadow folded his ears back and bared his teeth before flinging another Chaos Spear at him. Iblis didn't dodge it, obviously unaware of what it does. When he was hit, he seized up and was paralyzed for at least half a minute, long enough for Shadow to grab Mephiles by the hand and pull him onto his back again, then dart to the door.

_I hope he wakes up soon! It's going to be hard to keep escaping if I have to carry him! Iblis won't be frozen like that for long!_

"Rouge!" Shadow yelled when he saw her just outside the doors, her wings flapping to keep her in the air, the yellow Emerald under her arm.

Shadow reached a hand up just as he got out the doors, keeping his other hand focused on not dropping Mephiles, who was still unconscious. Rouge grabbed his hand and pulled the two up in the air a bit.

"The both of you are too hard to carry if I can only use one hand!" She said.

"I have an idea!" Shadow said, just as a flame blast shot the door off. "Just brace yourself!"

"What-?"

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

…

…

…

…

* * *

…

…

…

The trio fell and landed on the floor of their hotel room in a heap, Shadow on the bottom, trying to pull his way out and Rouge on top, realizing that Mephiles was still unconscious.

"What happened to him?"

"He told me that he thought a pressure point was hit before he passed out not long after you left…" Shadow got to his feet and ran over to the door to lock the deadbolt, then prop a chair against the doorknob.

"What are you doing?" Rouge said as Shadow started to throw his weight into pushing one of the beds against it.

"Just a temporary precaution…" Shadow grunted. "Not like it might not make much of a difference… but Iblis wants Mephiles dead…"

"Why? Isn't that what Dark wants?"

"Apparently Mephiles holds some key power into stopping him or something and doesn't know how to use it… I don't know… I was busy trying to get him out of there…"

Rouge held up the Emerald as Shadow picked up Mephiles and put him on the other bed.

"Well… at least we got to it before he did…" She said.

"Yes… but that's just one compared to six others that could be anywhere in the world right now! With Mephiles hurt… that's really gong to slow us down… though I'm sure he'll be fine in a couple of days…"

"Do we even have that long?"

"Who knows?"

Mephiles shivered and curled up, groaning softly under his breath, though he didn't wake up just yet…

* * *

Darkness all around him, it didn't take long for Mephiles to figure out where he was.

"How the heck did I get back in my mind again!? I was hoping to find Dark!"

"_And indeed you will…_" Mephiles heard the quite calm voice.

Mephiles wasn't sure whether to be happy or not. He simply nodded.

"Dark… Well… For once I'm glad to see you… and… _What are you wearing?_"

Mephiles had looked up from the ground to find Dark clutching his notebook in his hands tightly, and to Mephiles' great surprise… he was wearing what looked like a light blue terrycloth bathrobe.

"_Well… it's cold in here…_" Dark muttered, sniffling as if he himself had a cold. "_I had to retreat here when I found out that Iblis was the one messing with the thermostat…_"

He sneezed, his face a bit red around the cheeks.

"Well… if you're here, and we've got an Emerald… we can bring you out to our plane right now, can't we?"

"_No… The part of me that you're talking to right now is not whole with the one that is trying to kill you…_" Dark shook his head, sitting down as he sniffled again, frowning. "_To bring me out separately… we would require more Emeralds… one measly one isn't going to cut it this time…_"

"How many?"

"_I don't know…_" Dark sniffled yet again, narrowing his eyes at having to be plagued by such a nuisance that was called a "cold".

"I'd get you some tissues… but being as my mind is an empty black abyss…" Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"_Ever really wonder _why _it's an abyss?_" Dark twitched his torn ear. "_It's because I never gave you a chance to shape it to your pleasing… I had feared that it would be your escape from me…_"

"Wait… I can fix this?"

"_In a manner of speaking… yes…_"

"And I can make anything I want happen in here?"

"_It's the world of your imagination and fantasies… the only limit is what you cannot think of…_"

"Okay… let's see…" Mephiles thought about it, and smirked, before a couch appeared before his eyes. "Just like the one at home…"

"_Fond of couches, are you?_"

"Only because I sleep on one…" Mephiles grinned. "Go ahead… sit down on it…" He gestured.

Dark raised an eyebrow then made it to his feet before taking a few steps forward and sitting down.

"_It's… okay…_" He shrugged, looking up to see Mephiles hand him a box of tissues. "_Why are you being so nice to me? I try to kill you on regular basis…_"

"But right now… you're not my enemy…"

"_But, I want to be…_"

"Tell you what… you can be once this is all over…"

"_But who knows who long that'll take?!_"

"You just don't like waiting, do you?"

"_No!_" Dark barked, then quickly clapped a hand to his head. "_I am really not enjoying all of this right now… so anyway… what brings you here?_"

"Iblis just tried to suffocate me…"

Dark jumped up from the couch.

"_WHAT!? HE'S FOUND YOU?!_"

"Y-yeah… but as far as I know… we got the Emerald before he did…"

"_That doesn't matter! Now that he's found you, you won't lose him for long! What did you do today!?_"

"Just help Shadow and Rouge look for the Emeralds…"

"_You should have stayed at the hotel room!_"

"You didn't say I had to go into hiding…"

"_Idiot! I thought that was clear!_"

"Hey! I'm not an idiot!"

"_You're a-_"

Dark stopped suddenly, his muzzle turning a pale shade, his eyes getting wide as he clapped his hands over his mouth and sweat began beading up on his face. Mephiles knew what this meant.

"Oh, snap! You're going to barf!" Mephiles half cried, looking around frantically for a bucket or something. "Quick! Something for you to puke in! Something for you to puke in!"

Suddenly remembering that he was in control, he imagined something for that… only to find a stack of airsickness bags.

"I was hoping for a bucket… but okay…" He snatched one up and handed it to Dark, who turned away… let's not get into details. "… So you weren't kidding about getting as sick as I can… huh?"

"_... Shut up…_" Dark frowned and set the bag down. "_… That was because I got mad again…._"

"So how will I know if I'm going to be attacked again?"

Dark twitched his torn ear and began flipping through his notes before stopping on a page.

"_If he's anything like me… he'd wait until you are most vulnerable and attack you when you've let your guard down, or when you least expect him…_"

"Well, now that I know he's after me… I pretty much expect him…"

"_Then you must not let your guard down…_"

"But I'm already under a lot of stress…" Mephiles protested. "If I start flinching at every little thing… I might have a heart attack or something and we'll both be in trouble…"

"_Then keep on your toes… but also try to relax…_"

"How do I do that?"

"_Expect anything… but just calm down…_" Dark offered, shaking his head. "_You don't have to be tense all the time to be ready… Take me for example. I can anticipate your every move… but I hardly get worked up over it…_"

"That's because you're you…"

"_Or rather… an extension of you…_" Dark raised an eyebrow. "_Whatever I'm able to do… you should be able to too with the right motivation…_"

"You're driven by pure, undiluted evil… I'm not…" Mephiles muttered, rolling his eyes.

"_Then let that be your drive!_"

Mephiles frowned and looked around for a moment before changing the subject.

"So… aside from hanging out in here… have you been doing anything at all?"

"… _Just sitting and reading my notes…_"

"Because I had some chest pain earlier… you wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

"… _I told you… It would do me much harm right now to hurt you…_" Dark flopped onto the couch again. "_… I have no answer to that…_"

"I see…" Mephiles said slowly.

He was about to further ask questions, but then he realized that Dark was asleep, cured up on the couch, clutching his notebook tightly as if afraid that it was going to walk away while he was asleep.

"Strange…" He muttered. "How do I get out then? I was going to ask him to hit me again like last time… oh well… guess I have to… But first…"

He imagine up a folded up blanket next to the couch if it got too cold for Dark, then brought his hand up and closed his eyes as he hit himself opposite of the bruise.

Then it went black as he hit the ground…

* * *

Mephiles squeezed his eyelids for a moment, and then opened his eyes slowly, finding himself to have been curled up on one of the beds in the hotel room.

Getting up slowly, propping himself up with an arm, he coughed to let Shadow and Rouge know that he was awake, regretting that when the bruise on his neck flared up in pain.

"Mephiles!" Rouge exclaimed. "Oh good! You're up! How's your neck?"

"… Still hurts a little… but I think it's getting better…" The crystal hedgehog muttered, shaking his head slowly. "… So… what happened after I fainted?"

"He's still after you…" Shadow said, keeping his eyes on the barricaded door. "Do you have any idea about any… 'dormant powers' you may have?"

"… No… why..?"

"Because Iblis said something about you having that or something, and that's why he wants you dead…"

Mephiles stared blankly for a moment before breaking out into laughter, having to stop because his bruise was hurting again.

"… Ow… No… C'mon… _Me?_" He snickered. "From what I can tell, my powers hardly work the way I want them to, and Iblis is more powerful. How could I be a problem? I'm just a hedgehog…"

"Really..? Because hours ago, you was going on about how you were able to stop Dark… Surely you mustn't think you're useless?"

"… No… but really… what can I possibly do that's really a threat?"

"I dunno… your feral state of mind is pretty dangerous…" Shadow brought up, rubbing a hand against his arm. "And if you get really ticked… Well, I mean you do have that entire shadow powers thing at your command…"

"… The funny thing is… I don't know how it's controlled…" Mephiles said nervously, directing his attention to the floor. "… It seems to show up when I'm either really scared or really mad… But it hardly showed up when I was fighting Dark…"

"Maybe its all emotion based…" Rouge noted.

"… I do know that the 'Dark Spike' is controlled by anger… Dark's personality is mostly that, so it's natural… but for me… it only worked well when I'm really consumed by it…" Mephiles explained to the best of his knowledge. "… I came up with its concept, and Dark used it against me... He was able to perfect it before I could… and that's why he could use it better than I could… I should have never thought of that thing to begin with…"

"When _did_ you come up with it?"

"… I honestly can't remember…" Mephiles said with a trailing tone, tilting his head slowly to the side. "Anyway… I think I should tell you that Dark has retreated to my mind…"

"Wait… He's back in your head? What's he doing there?" Shadow looked away from the door for the first time. "Has he been hurting you again? Was he the reason you had that near heart attack?"

"No… Dark wants to help me right now… not kill me…" Mephiles raised an eyebrow slowly. "I thought we've been through this already. Secondly… he's there because Iblis had been messing with the thermostat. He's asleep on the couch I imagined in there, and he's got a cold or something… He's even got a bathrobe… which is strange… because I didn't think we had one. It's about the same color as our crystals and its terrycloth…"

"Mephiles… focus…"

"Sorry… but anyway… He's there right now… but we can't set him free with one Emerald, because his body is already on our plane. The remaining part of him is his rational and more levelheaded side… so it's like the 'me-version' of him there…"

"This is just about the craziest adventure I've ever been on!" Shadow said loudly. "And believe me! I've been on some pretty crazy ones before! Outer space! Memory loss! Thinking I was an Android…"

"You never told me about that one!" Mephiles looked up. "When did this happen?"

"I'll tell you later when we're not fearing for our lives…"

"Fair enough…"

"So if Dark is in your mind, and we've got an Emerald… then-"

"It won't work…" Mephiles answered before Shadow could finish asking. "Dark says that since Iblis has control of his body while the rest of him is elsewhere… it would require more Emeralds…"

"How many?"

"He didn't say… But I know we're far from over on this…"

"Well… we hardly unpacked, so we should just clean up and get out of here before he attacks you again…"

To their surprise… Mephiles shook his head almost stubbornly.

"Why not?" Shadow asked in confusion.

"You said we would take them with us…" Mephiles folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not leaving them behind again with that monster loose again…"

"But-"

"But what, Shadow?" Mephiles bared his teeth. "If you make a comment about them already being dead… I _will _bite you hard enough to hurt you…"

"You're just being stubborn now…" Shadow rolled his eyes. "We need to get out of here before Iblis tries to kill you again…"

"And we will… right after we go get them…"

"SERIOUSLY?!"

"YES!"

During this, Rouge rolled her eyes and pulled a box out of her suitcase, and dumped everything out of it then handed it to Shadow.

"Here… Chaos Control there… put them in this and Chaos Control back." She said. "You have an Emerald… you can do it…"

"And be _careful_ with them!" Mephiles said almost shrilly. "I don't want them looking like a puzzle or something! I want them all in one piece!"

Shadow was tempted to roll his eyes, but thought better of it. With a quick chant of the words needed… he disappeared.

"So… Dark's back in your head?" Rouge said to try to strike up a conversation.

"Oh, yes…"

"I see… And… we need more Emeralds?"

"Yep…"

"Hmm…"

After about a couple of minutes, Shadow reappeared, panting a bit for breath.

"Here…" He handed the box to Mephiles, who snatched it away almost immediately. "I'm going to need to wait to do another Chaos Control… doing two one after another with only one Emerald is just too tough…"

"Thank you, Shadow…" Mephiles murmured, holding the box carefully, setting it down on his lap. "I wouldn't have been able to go back there anyway… given that there is just too much there for me…"

"Yeah… but now we have to wait before it's safe to leave…"

"Dark said that if Iblis is anything like him, he would wait until I least expect it before attacking me again…" Mephiles said, looking up. "He would attack me when I'm vulnerable. As long as I keep on my toes for a while, we can leave whenever it's convenient…"

"But we don't know if Iblis is anything like Dark." Shadow brought up as a good point. "For all we know, Iblis might not have any strategies at all."

"True… but since Dark is Iblis' other half… we should trust his judgment as well…"

"Be easier to do if Dark hadn't tried to kill you before…" The hybrid hedgehog growled. "How can we be sure that Dark isn't on his side and isn't just playing like he's in trouble?"

"He just _barfed!_ You can't fake that if you're staring right at a person! And in all my time of knowing about Dark… I have never seen him do that. I have never seen him giggle, lose his train of thought, fall asleep, sniffle or wear a bathrobe because of a cold before now. It's just not his style…"

"Still, it doesn't hurt to still be suspicious of him…"

"And indeed I have been. I keep testing him before I trust everything he says. If there is something that contradicts it… then I know he's lying. But so far… nothing…"

"Still… be careful around him…"

"I know… I know…" Mephiles rolled his eyes before taking a looks at the barricaded door. "So… uh… are we… uh… going to stay in here… or are we going to risk it and go somewhere? Because I hate being trapped…"

* * *

So... yeah... looks like Mephiles got out with a bruise... but at least he's got both his families now...

See ya soon...


	11. Erin, Chinus and Ceus

Okay... con-tin-you-ing!

Been a while... ^^;

I figured to start of the chapter with Rae and the Chaos. Hope you like it :D

Oh, and please! Go to the TD forums! I need posts! The link is on my profile!

* * *

Rae closed the third closet door, and shook her head.

"Jak? Have you seen Sharpe at all?" She called to her graying dog.

Jak snorted and shook his head.

"That's weird…" The purple fox muttered. "He's not with Kai or Krystal, so where could he-?"

She stopped.

"Aw crud…" Rae muttered and ran up the stairs on all fours quickly, turning sharply on the landing in the hidden hallway and stood up to push her door open.

Though the purple themed room was always a mess most of the time, Rae screamed at the sight of all her art papers littering the floor and shreds of some floating to the ground.

"NOT THE PAPER!" Rae quickly picked up every piece and shoved it in the semi walk-in closet and slid both doors shut.

Then she noticed the dog and cat food dishes were flipped over, and litter mingled with the puddle of water from the overturned metal dish.

A kitten was yowling somewhere in the room. Rae realized that she had locked the kitten in the closet by accident.

"Scooch!" The fox rescued the kitten, who looked like Jak, and held him in one arm as she tried to locate the Chao.

Sharpe was found in the cabinet of the computer desk, much to Rae's dislike.

"That's where I keep my Harry Potter books! All seven!" She pulled him out, trying to pry his claws off of the fourth one. "Aw, c'mon, that one was put through enough when that kid threw it in the tree in the seventh grade! It took me all of my lunch time to shake it down! That's one of my favorites!"

Indeed, the book was well worn. Its book jacket had been torn across the front, and near the base of the spine. Masking tape repaired the bent corners clumsily, and the edges were so worn, the book could almost fall apart at anytime.

"Figures… the stuff I pay for with my own money are the ones that get messed up by someone else…" She growled, and frowned when Sharpe had pulled down a large, plastic, robotic looking blue and red scorpion, which hit the old computer monitor, the claw breaking off. "Hey! My bother gave me that Zoid!"

The fox carried the Chao downstairs and set him on the couch, taking a deep breath to compose herself.

"Okay, Sharpe… there are a few things you should bear in mind…" She tried explaining. "The biggest is not to mess with any of my things that you haven't been given permission to touch. A lot of that stuff is irreplaceable, such as things that connect with a memory…" She trailed of and saw that he was holding a small brown bean bag dog that looked like it had been though the washer many times. She snatched it. "Like this… my grandma Norma gave me that a couple of years before she died of cancer… it was from a trip to McDonalds, and it was during the Beanie Baby Promotion. That one was hers… and I got the cat… those are my first Beanies…"

Sharpe threw her the puppy eyes look, which distracted Rae from what she was talking about at first. Then she had an idea.

"Y'know… I've got extras of a lot of different kinds of Beanies…" She said. "I can give you and the others one of your own…"

Hurrying upstairs, she disappeared into her room and retrieved three Beanies.

"How about 'Runner the Mustelidae' for you, 'Princess the Bear' for Krystal, and 'Rocket the Blue Jay' for Kai? I've got so many of those ones, I wouldn't mind sharing…"

Sharpe seemed to like Runner. Runner looked like a mongoose, or some other mischievous type animal. That kept him busy enough for Rae to find something else to entertain him.

* * *

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because, you might get hurt."

"That's only the red Emerald!" Mephiles protested, reaching a hand out to try to grab the power gem in Shadow's hand. "I'm already bruised, so what else could happen? We'll never know until we try…"

Shadow stared at the crystal hedgehog before him, who took care as to widen his eyes innocently and add a bit of a tremble to his lower lip, totally taking advantage of his ability to look completely and utterly cute and innocent.

"Where did you learn to do that? Sharpe?"

"Well… Yes, actually…" Mephiles blushed a shade of pink. "But, I'm serious…"

"Serious? With that look? You look like a little kid wanting to play with a toy his daddy won't let him…"

"Please? Don't make me replace the 'ell' with a 'double-you'… I can do that…"

"I don't think you-"

"Pwease?"

Right then, Rouge busted up laughing, shouting: "I can't believe he _did _that!"

As Shadow was distracted, Mephiles swiped the Emerald out of his hand before Shadow could react.

"Hey!"

"See, Shadow?" Mephiles shook the gem in his hand and grinned. "Oh, help… It's _so _dangerous…" He said sarcastically, waving his hands in mock fright before scoffing.

"That's nice, now give it back…"

"Why? It's not doing anything to me… it's a dud, I guess…" Mephiles tossed it up in the air and caught it one handedly. Then he paused and stared blankly for a moment, mouth half open.

Once Shadow and Rouge realized what this meant, Shadow snatched the Emerald from Mephiles, who regained his composure rather quickly.

He blinked before asking something a bit surprising.

"What kinda white stuff falls from the sky?"

"What..?" Shadow and Rouge were confused.

"I dunno. I just saw a bunch of fluffy white stuff falling from the sky to the ground. It was falling slower than rain, but the entire ground was covered in it. Trees even…"

"Did… did you just _See_ something?" Shadow handed the Emerald to Rouge.

"See?"

"Y'know… like your visions… did you See something?"

"I dunno… I just wanna know what that white stuff was."

"I think you just saw snow."

"Snow?"

"Frozen raindrops that form into crystals. It happens when the weather is cold."

"I've never seen that before…"

"We didn't have snowfall in Westopolis last year…" Rouge explained. "Due to a slight change in the climate from the Black Arms invasion last year, shortly before we left for Soleanna."

"How did that affect the weather?"

"Because of the presence of the Black Comet, it caused the weather to heat up for a short time, even after it was blown up by Shadow."

"You blew up a comet?!" Mephiles stared at Shadow in surprise. "How did you do _that?_"

"I was Super Shadow at the time…"

"Super… Shadow?" Mephiles looked confused as he said this slowly.

"A 'Super' form is obtained through the use of all seven Chaos Emeralds." Shadow explained. "In fact, there are several Emerald induced forms when all of that type of Emerald are collected at once. Most change to a gold-ish color, their eyes change red like mine, and they have enhanced abilities for as long as they keep collecting Rings."

"Rings help?"

"They are more than just currency, Mephiles…" Rouge explained. "Every Emerald produces numerous Rings that have residual Chaos Energy, but all of that is not usable until the Emerald are within range of the Rings."

"Some Rings…" Shadow continued. "Can be used for other purposes. Such as these…" Shadow gestured to his wrists, and shook one foot and then the other. "These Rings are modified to keep my Chaos Energy at bay."

"If you happen to be in an area where there are a lot of Rings with all of the Emeralds…" Rouge continued on. "Then the Super Form can be activated. I've only seen it happen with Sonic and Shadow."

"And Sonic claims up and down that Tails and Knuckles can as well…"

"Tails?" Mephiles flicked an ear. "Who's 'Tails'?"

"He's a twin tail fox like Rae, but he's like Sonic's little brother…" Shadow told him. "He can fly using his tails and was pretty helpful during the Black Arms invasion. Helped me find an Emerald, and save the President."

"Fascinating… but, anyway… so, snow is frozen rain?"

"Kinda… you'd really have to see it for yourself."

Mephiles gave him a look that clearly said "Are you making a joke about what just happened?"

"Huh?"

"Are you making a joke about what just happened?" Mephiles said.

"What? Oh, no! Of course not!" Shadow scoffed.

"Just checking… Lemmie see that Emerald again."

"Why?"

"I have an idea…" Mephiles said, holding his hand out. "Lemmie see it…"

"What would that idea be?"

"I dunno, I just wanna see something…"

"How about no?" Shadow shook his head and put the Emerald in his suitcase. "I don't think you need to be near this right now…"

"You're babying me!" Mephiles shouted. "I'm almost eleven years old, and you won't let me see an Emerald that's not hurting me? That's not cool!"

"And it's with that attitude…" Rouge added. "That it further enforces us not to let you see it right away…"

Mephiles folded his arms and frowned.

"Okay then… can we do something? I'm not liking being stuck in this room at all…" He said. "Like maybe look around?"

"But you don't like being around here…"

"It's better than being stuck in a room…" Mephiles said with his eyes closed. "At least I won't feel trapped…"

One could understand why he hated the feeling of being trapped. It's been such a repeating factor in his life that he disliked it much more than the average person or Mobian.

Needless to say, after enough prying, Mephiles was able to get what he wanted.

"I can't help but notice…" Shadow said, looking at Mephiles as the trio was entering through the gates of the New City part of Soleanna. "That even though you aren't the same Mephiles that I met… you can still get your way…"

"Really, I wasn't asking too much…" Mephiles shrugged, keeping close to Rouge and Shadow as they passed the Mayor, Mephiles twitching slightly as if afraid something was going to happen. "I mean, if we just hide… what is that saying? That we're letting Iblis know that we're afraid of him… and he can use that against us. If we go out in the open… his opinion might change. He'll think that we're bold enough to do something about this… it's a simple reasoning…" He explained. "That… and I'm tired of hiding from everything…"

He heard the clearing of a throat and screamed, dropping to the ground and rolling into a spiky ball in the blink of an eye. Shadow and Rouge rolled _their_ eyes.

"You were saying?" Shadow said as Mephiles uncurled and sat up, laughing nervously.

"Sorry, that was a reflex…"

"A reflex to what?"

Mephiles never answered that. Instead he just ignored it.

Everything seemed to be going fine from then on, until they ventured to the docks.

Mephiles tensed up and looked like he was about to be sick. He panted as he looked up and one could see that he was slowly growing paler.

"Mephiles?"

The crystal hedgehog blinked and spun around, plowing past Shadow and out of sight as series of yelps sounded off from him.

Going after him, he was found hiding behind a stack of crates near the warehouses, curled up defensively, arms shielding his head and shaking.

Rouge touched a hand to his shoulder and he jumped, shrinking away for her, shouting: "I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!!"

"Mephiles, it's us…"

The hedgehog uncurled and shot up, staring for a long moment before his eyes cleared up and his face darkened a shade of burgundy as he looked away quickly, visibly embarrassed with himself.

"S-sorry…" He muttered, shaking his head. "I-I just… uh, n-never mind…"

"Meph… did something happen to you over there?" Shadow asked slowly.

"What gave you that idea?" Mephiles faked an attempt to smile, which seemed more like he wasn't even trying at all.

"The fact that you freaked out and ran off…"

"It doesn't matter now… it happened a long time ago… before I found Westopolis…"

"It matters if it makes you upset…"

"I'M NOT UPSET!" The crystal hedgehog bellowed, kicking one of the crates before slamming his back against the wall of the building and sliding to the ground, yanking at his quills. "It's in the past! Nobody cared then, so they're sure as heck not gonna care now!"

"I'm sure that by 'they'… you don't mean us, right?" Shadow said. "Because we care… that's why we're doing this for you…"

"I mean, all that happened was that I slipped!" Mephiles continued, perhaps too worked up to have not heard Shadow at all. "I slipped and almost fell in if I hadn't grabbed onto the planks of wood! And they just watched and laughed! I had garbage thrown at me! They took rotted food out of the _trashcans_ and threw it at me while I was begging for help! I'm half in the water, scared out of my mind, and all they care about is kicking a so called 'demon' when he's down!"

_That would have explained how his fur was so messy when he found us… _Rouge noted sadly. _And that probably made him not only more afraid of water, but of the people here too…_

"This is all Dark's fault! Because of him, an entire city hates me! The city I was _born_ in, nonetheless!" He looked up and saw that he must have been making quite a scene. There were several people staring, prompting Mephiles to duck behind the crate out of sight. He _really_ didn't like them…

Shadow looked up at the people and clenched his teeth.

"You see what you've done to him?" Shadow shook his head, as he announced that. "You've given him a reason to dislike Humans, and you've made him even _more_ afraid of water. What has he done to any of you?"

"He's that demon from-" A teenaged boy started.

"Okay, before you continue, let me reiterate that he is _not _a demon…" Shadow glared. "He is a hedgehog like me and Sonic, and any other hedgehog."

"But he was created in the lab-"

"That must make me a demon as well…" Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I'm a hedgehog and I'm scientifically altered. I even share the genes of the Black Arms aliens. Y'know… the ones that invaded last year…" He added. "If I remember right, the Humans were under the impression that I was a 'monster' as well… My friends and I were shot at, even Sonic… do you people have something _against_ Mobians?"

The last part was more of a sudden "Come to think of it…" moment. It had just occurred to Shadow (and Rouge) that not only the aliens were being shot at by GUN… at the time, Shadow hadn't been made an agent yet, and that was during the time when the Human race believed Shadow to be on the Black Arms side… mostly because the Gun Commander had issued orders to kill Shadow on sight.

Mephiles had his ears perked up during Shadow's question, and muttered to himself: "Yeah… I think they do…"

The teenager looked nervous when he received the glare from the white bat and the black hedgehog.

Mephiles was growing bored, and with that, he easily zoned out and before he knew it… he had fallen asleep quickly.

* * *

Instead of ending up in his familiar abyss of a mind, as he had expected, but instead he was in what seemed to be the cage room of the laboratory facility.

"Dark? What's going on?" Mephiles spun around trying to locate his double, thoroughly surprised to see that the cages had living animals in them and the scorches were gone. The room was warmly lit, and aside from the cages… it was quite a welcoming place. "DARK!"

"_Yes..?_"

Mephiles turned his full attention to a corner where Dark, still in his bathrobe, was sitting, half open eyes fixed on a certain cage.

"What's going on here? Where are we?"

"_Where do you think?_" Dark sighed.

"I don't know… I was hoping my mind…"

"_Half correct… this is a memory, I believe…_" Dark shifted his attention from the cage briefly to lock gazes with Mephiles before looking back at the cage. "_It seems like those memories I locked away are starting to bring themselves forward…_"

Mephiles gave him a confused look before looking at the cage Dark was looking at. Mephiles' eyes widened when he realized that the cage was eye level with him.

Hurrying over to it, he peered in and felt his heart jump when he was a family of four hedgehogs in it.

Each of them were different shades of earthly colors, with white underbellies, at least three different shades of brown for their quills and all but one had dark muzzles.

That one was the lightest colored one of the little hoglets, the other two nearly identical if it wasn't for one of them having lighter brown color on their quills.

The light one was busy scratching away at the aspen bedding shavings, as if he was hoping to find a way out.

"Mom! Mephy's trying to escape again!" Mephiles heard a girl voice sound from the lighter brown colored hoglet.

"Tattler!" The light hoglet barked. "Chinus is lying! I was just… moving the shavings around!"

"OHMIGOD! _CHINUS AND CEUS!?_" Mephiles shouted as the mention of the sister's name brought back the memory of a brother's name. Mephiles then clapped his hands over his mouth, looking a bit frightened about something.

"_They can't hear you…_" Dark said quietly, not at all having any emotion at all to this. "_This is your memory, so you're merely seeing it again…_"

"They can't hear me..?" Mephiles was half disappointed, but he shook his head. "So, I'm guessing that little light colored one is me? I thought you said that you came up with 'Mephiles' by yourself…"

"_You remember me saying that..?_" Dark raised an eyebrow. "_I thought I blocked that memory..._"

"What part of 'Me getting memories back' don't you get?" The good double frowned. "So, my name was 'Mephiles' this whole time?"

"_Yes… but you couldn't remember that…_"

"I would have expected you to have made up a new name…"

"_I lack that kind of creativity…_" Dark said, surprising Mephiles greatly. "_That's why I asked you to name me… I can never find a good word for something new…_"

Mephiles returned his attention to the cage and stared at the larger hedgehog.

She had a dark muzzle, dark feet, dark ears and her quills were colored like something Mephiles would describe as "Peppered".

Mephiles felt his heart skip a beat or two when he laid eyes on his mother for the first time he could truly remember.

The hedgehog sighed and slapped a dark paw to her head, as if she had to deal with this everyday.

"Mephiles. Stop trying to get out. Chinus. Stop watching your brother."

"I hate being in this cage!"

"I'm not watching him!"

The other hoglet, however, was busy running in a wheel, his brown feet a near blur.

"Hey, guys! Betcha can't run this fast!" He laughed.

"Ceus, hedgehogs aren't supposed to be fast…" Mephiles' younger self growled.

Ceus stopped in mid stride and realized that far too late, having to grab onto the bars of the wheel while it spun him upside down several times.

"Ah! Help!"

Little Mephiles rolled his eyes and waddled over there, bobbing his head for a few moments to count the pattern, and then shot his little paws out to grab a bar. The wheel pulled him up on his toes before he got it to stop, his brother upside down. He let got and Ceus rolled down to the bottom.

"I was a bit of a mean little guy then, wasn't I?" Mephiles frowned in disapproval as he wiped his eyes clear.

"_Spending all your life trapped in a cage? It's understandable…_"

The door opened and a red haired little girl about seven years of age came in. Little Mephiles perked his ears up with his siblings and scurried to the cage door, wrapping their paws around the wire bars and sticking their noses through. Little Mephiles looked at her pitifully.

"I wonder who that is." Mephiles said to Dark.

"_She's the other victim of the accident…_"

"Elise?! God, she looks so young here…"

"_This is a memory of about a decade ago…_" Dark said, not once taking his eyes off the cage this whole time. "_Everything and everyone is at least that much younger here…_"

"Wait… a _decade?_" Mephiles now looked distressed as he watched the girl scratch the hedgehogs through the bars.

"_Give or take a year…_"

"Oh, no… _oh, no…_" Mephiles shook his head. "What's the date of this day?"

"_Huh..?_" Dark appeared to be bored or disinterested, or even emotionless at the moment.

Mephiles grabbed him by the shoulders of the bathrobe and pulled him to where they were face to face.

"The date, Dark! What day are we watching?!"

"… _November fourteenth… nineteen ninety-seven…_" Dark replied in a monotone voice. "_… I've seen this day way too many times already…_"

"Get me out of here _now!_" Mephiles was getting frantic. "I know how this one ends! Get me out of here! I don't want to see it!"

"_But if you leave now… you'll leave me to watch this all by myself…_" Dark muttered, his head down as he watched the floor. "_… I've already seen this day way too many times to count today… too many… to count…_"

Mephiles' eyes widened when he realized what that had meant. Dark had watched the death of the hedgehogs.

"Dark… have you moved at all from that corner..?"

"_I meant to follow after you when you escaped… but my curiosity got the better of me…_" Dark lifted his head and Mephiles saw that Dark's eyes had a dead look to them… they looked dull and listless again. "_… Perhaps I should have followed… this was a bit too much… Not even _I _would wish that on _you…"

"Just get me out of here before _I_ have to see it!" Mephiles cried.

"_Oh… _that_ doesn't happened until a half an hour passes here..._" Dark shifted his gaze to the cage again. Elise was giving a lot of attention to the lightest colored hedgehog.

"Then get me out before that happens! Hit me or something! I don't wanna see it!"

"… _I wouldn't wish that on you…_" Dark said softly, having not heard Mephiles at all.

Mephiles shook him, but he was better off trying to ask the ones that couldn't see or hear him.

Mephiles clenched his hands and took a deep breath before he hit himself on the pressure point.

* * *

Blinking his eyes open, he was hit in the face with bright sunlight.

He was still where he had fallen asleep.

Squinting and holding a hand up to shield his eyes, he saw Shadow and Rouge staring at him with more than half concerned looks. Several other people were standing over him, one young kid having a stick that he had been poking him with.

"I only fell asleep…" Mephiles half lied, yawning to prove his point as he swatted the stick away. He didn't want to explain his recent encounter with Dark with the people around, knowing full well that they would dismiss Dark as a figment since they hardly understood the story at all. "Please don't poke me…"

"Are you okay?" Rouge asked. "It's not like you to just fall asleep in the middle of the sidewalk…"

"Is that where I am?" Mephiles hadn't bothered to notice. "I just got bored, that's all… I'll explain later…" He swatted the stick again. He kept his patience… the kid was only six years of age it seemed. "Please, stop… that's really bugging me…"

Shadow offered him a hand to help him sit up, Mephiles not wanting to stand up just yet.

Mephiles then realized that he was being stared at by everyone… but the emotion he was feeling from them was different than what he was used to.

"W-why is everyone s-staring at me..?"

…

"Mephiles… I think you were having a nightmare just now…"

…

"Huh?" Mephiles perked his ears up. "I-I don't think I was…"

"Meph… you were just screaming…" Shadow said.

"Th-that could have been because I was scared just… uh… how long was I out..?"

"Twenty minutes…" Shadow stared at him. "Something was scaring you for at least the past few minutes…"

Mephiles swallowed back something when he knew exactly what Shadow was talking about.

What made it even worse was that the people knew about it as well…

* * *

Ooh... Poor Mephiles...

But, not to worry, he shouldn't have to be in Soleanna much longer, hopefully he can leave within a few more chapters...

Oh, and if you wanna know, Mephiles' mom's name is "Erin". I have a pic on DeviantArt. ^^


	12. A Visit Home

Well... not much to say ^^

* * *

Feeling his insides twist and squirm uncomfortably, Mephiles could feel that familiar rising of heat to his face again.

Now that the Humans knew of his… "sleeping problem" (Perhaps putting it lightly. But either way, Mephiles was known to recite what was going on in mind if he was unconscious.), Mephiles was sure that they would think of him as weak.

If they were bad when they feared him… he didn't dare imagine what they would be like if the thought _he _should fear them (Which he did.).

His eyes grew wide as that realization hit him in the face like a sack of Chaos Emeralds.

"So… you say this happens often?" He heard someone say.

"_You told them!?_" Mephiles squeaked, turning his wide eyes on Shadow.

"Well… you were kinda screaming… and… well…"

"That doesn't mean that they have to know about it!" Mephiles was frantic. He wasn't sure to be either upset or angry. "How much did you hear while I was out of it!?"

"Um… You were asking Dark about something…"

Feeling what ever emotion he was feeling at the moment rise and hit over the top completely, Mephiles got to his feet and ran, pushing past everyone to get away from them, half afraid that he was going to lash out and attack someone blindly.

He heard his name get called, but he didn't care. He just had to get away. As far away as he could right now. That was all.

Not looking where he was going, it wasn't long until luck would have it that he was to run into something… or rather… someone.

Being that he weighed at least ten pounds lighter than the average hedgehog, Mephiles' body mass was enough to knock himself back and on the ground, having hardly any effect on the Human he just collided with.

Holding his hands to the back of his head, he looked up with one eye open and jolted when he saw who he was looking up at.

As if everything was working against him today, Mephiles was upset to see that he had run into none other than the other victim of the Soleanna Disaster, Princess Elise III herself.

Not sure of what else to do, Mephiles was frozen in shock, his mouth half open as he had his eyes locked with the princess' pale blue eyes.

"Are you okay?" She asked, not at all aware that this was the very hedgehog she had once scratched behind the ears when she was young. Kneeling down, she scanned her eyes at his unusual features, such as his crystals, pale red sclera and solid green eyes that seem to lack any pupils (Though that didn't impair his ability to see.).

But, what she first noted verbally would have made him laugh if he wasn't frozen.

"You have blue fur and green eyes like a hedgehog I know…"

Mephiles twitched, and finally regained his ability to blink, which he did so and looked away.

"I-I m-might know him…" Mephiles managed in a bit of a stutter.

To be honest, Mephiles was worried. If the people here didn't like him… they would most likely go ballistic if they saw him conversing with the princess… perhaps even more if they know that he had ran into her… quite literally.

"You know Sonic?" Her voice was quite happy at this, making Mephiles cringe, knowing that she was now going to launch into a conversation. "Where is he now? He left Soleanna a while ago. How is he doing?"

What perplexed Mephiles the most right now was that she was being so polite and civil with him, as opposed to what he was used to from the people around the city. Perhaps she was unaware of who he was…

Mephiles now had the overwhelming desire to get up and run again, but the shock of running into Elise made him feel like his legs would give out if he tried.

He cursed himself silently for his inability to deal with shock.

"You're… unusual looking for a… you are a hedgehog, aren't you?"

Mephiles nodded slowly, hoping dearly that Shadow and Rouge found them before anyone else did.

"Are you okay? You kinda ran into me…" Elise asked again.

If Mephiles was having a meltdown, he hoped that he was doing a good job at hiding it.

Perhaps this was too much for him, but the next thing Mephiles knew, his vision faded to black as a feeling of lightheadedness washed over him and knocked him over before he knew what hit him.

Then the next thing he knew after that was that he was waking up to find Rouge fanning his face with what he assumed was one of those "free take one" magazines.

Squinting against the bright light of the sun, he shifted his eyes to the right to find Shadow… and to his left… numerous people.

In fact… they were surrounding them.

…

Crowding him…

…

Mephiles didn't like crowds…

…

They always gave him a trapped feeling if he was caught in the middle…

…

Trapped…

…

He hated that feeling…

…

Always did…

…

Always…

…

For as long as he could remember…

…

…

Without meaning to, he cried out in an inexplicable moment of fright as the thought of how far back the memory of that feeling went. He clapped his hands over his mouth and felt his face turn dark red from embarrassment.

Scanning his eyes across the crowd of people, he was upset to find that Elise had not left.

To his dismay, he heard people whispering to each other, some of which was directed to Shadow and Rouge, all of it questions about him.

"Is he okay?"

"Whoa, he just screamed for no reason…"

"Forget that, he just ran off and ran into the princess!"

"He fainted even!"

"They said this happens to him more often than we would think…"

"Is he okay… in like… y'know..?"

"Who's Dark?"

"I always figured he was nuts!"

"That accident must have made him unstable…"

"That's a shame… it must have rattled his brain…"

"The poor thing must be so confused right now…"

Some of these comments stung. Others made Mephiles' blood begin to boil. He couldn't take any comments that questioned his mental stability.

"I am _not!_" He shouted, sitting up and propping himself by his arm, clenching his hands into fists tightly. "I am _not_ insane! I am _not_ unstable! I am _not _disturbed! My brain isn't _rattled!_ I'm _not_ nuts! And I am most definitely _certain_ about what is going on!" At the last sentence, he lifted his head and for a brief moment, one could see the red darken in his eyes.

Shadow had seen this and frowned.

"Mephiles… I think we need to get you out of here…" He said quickly, grabbing Mephiles' arm and nodding for Rouge to grab the other and pull the shaky hedgehog to his feet.

Mephiles' eyes narrowed and he half bared his teeth as he whispered: "… Why?"

"Just trust me on this…" Shadow spoke softly enough to be heard by only him and Rouge. Then he said more loudly: "I'm sure you just need to lie down and everything, since this has been a pretty bad day to you…"

"Oh, that's just perfect, Shadow… make it look like I'm a bit of a weakling!" Mephiles shot at him sarcastically, baring his teeth more. "Not like it's really going to help but-"

"Just shut up right now…" Shadow growled and pulled Mephiles away from the crowded area, leading him away from New City and back into Castle Town with Rouge helping him try to contain an agitated and struggling Mephiles. "Meph! Calm down!"

"Why? What's the worst that's going to happen to me if I don't?!"

"Meph! I saw your eyes darken!"

That shut Mephiles up real quick. He froze momentarily, Shadow having not noticed and nearly pulled Mephiles off his feet if Rouge hadn't stopped With Mephiles, hand still on his arm.

"… W-what..?" He whispered weakly.

Shadow and Rouge felt his muscles tremble under their grips as Mephiles nearly collapsed again.

"… B-but th-that's impossible… D-dark's not in any f-fit state to do that right now…" Mephiles explained shakily.

"Define that…"

Mephiles swallowed and continued.

"… I l-left him in one of m-my memories… and I th-think it b-broke him…" Mephiles stammered, utter bewildered and downright frightened.

"What do you mean… 'Broke' him?" Rouge asked.

"… H-he ended up s-seeing the d-death of my f-family because he explored more of the area in th-the memory that I wasn't p-present in…" Mephiles stuttered. "… He was in sh-shock… he could barely answer me… i-it was too much for him…"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah! I d-don't even think he really thought I was there… he l-looked like he was in a trance…" Suddenly, Mephiles could feel a sudden surge of so many emotions, he wasn't sure how to sort them. He was certain that he felt anger, fright and… despair?

That most certainly wasn't coming from him… so the only other reason must have been from Dark.

"I think Dark just saw it again…" He whispered, almost able to hear a scream echo in his head. "I'm sensing something that isn't from me… it's not happy…"

"I would have thought Dark would be enjoying that…" Shadow muttered, earning the most serious face he's ever seen on Mephiles. "What?"

"Shadow… what could possibly be enjoyable about _that? _That, and Dark absolutely despises fire…"

"And yet… his own brother is a flame…" Shadow said offhandishly.

"I'm not really sure if you could call them brothers…" Mephiles said. "The two of them makes Solaris… so… Dark is Iblis' counterpart…"

Mephiles suddenly clapped his hands to his head, and frowned, clenching his teeth together tightly.

"Mephiles?!"

"Dark won't shut up!" He barked. "God, his voice can get so high pitched for such a deep one!"

"Is he telling you anything?" Rouge asked.

"No. He's just spouting out gibberish! Like I said, I think he's in shock!" Mephiles opened one eye and looked up. "I'm going to try to get him to stop. Hold on for a moment…" He closed his eye and focused on trying to send his messages to Dark. There was a pause and then he shouted: "WHO DO YOU _THINK_ IT IS?!"

"Meph… you're talking out loud…" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow as him and Rouge took a step back.

Mephiles blushed a bit and lowered his ears a little.

"S-sorry…" He stammered as he tried again, only to let his hands slide off his head and sigh. "I can't get through to him… He hears me… but he's not sure if it _is _me… He's also…" Mephiles stopped and shook his head. "This isn't right… Dark isn't supposed to get scared… It's just not him…"

Mephiles grew silent, and then a thought occurred to Shadow.

"We probably should go back home when we leave so we can get that red Emerald before Iblis gets it. I think that one could do the most damage…"

Mephiles' eyes widened.

"I'm not touching that one!"

"You won't need to…" Shadow said. "I'll get it and we should keep the Emeralds in something…"

"Like what Shadow?" Rouge asked. "A backpack or something? Because isn't it a bad idea to have them all together at once?"

"Not if we all have a backpack each…" Shadow said.

Mephiles nodded.

"I get it… with three of us… we can only hold three at the most, while the others have two. If we decide to split up… the Emeralds are split up too, and Iblis would have to fight all of us. That's brilliant, Shadow!" Mephiles said excitedly. "So, when should we leave?"

"I'm sure at anytime now…" Shadow said. "Unless you want to stay any longer here…"

"Are you kidding? Yes, I wanna leave!" Mephiles shouted.

* * *

Taking at least a half an hour to return to their room, grab their stuff, make sure nothing was left behind, and check out, the trio returned home via Chaos Control.

Shadow held the yellow Emerald in his hands as he flopped onto the couch with a content sigh, Mephiles following suit.

"It's good to be home…" The two hedgehogs said in unison.

"I missed this couch…" Mephiles half laughed. "We should probably check on how Rae is doing with the Chaos… no doubt Sharpe has gotten into trouble… and Krystal has probably missed me… and Kai… well… he's important too."

Rouge looked at the answering machine, and was surprised to see quite a large number of messages. Hitting the button, they listened to them. It was Rae.

"_Hey… let me know when you get home… it's been boring without you guys…_"

"_Is Sharpe allowed to play with markers? I hid them from him…_"

"_Krystal misses you, Mephy!_"

"_Are you home yet?_"

"_How 'bout now?_"

"_Dear God! Sharpe just destroyed my special ceramic dog! Help!_"

"_Are Chaos allowed to get into cat food? Sharpe just tore open the bag…_"

"_Nothing to report on Kai…_"

"_He's a maniac! Sharpe just clipped the tag off of my rarest, most prized Beanie Baby! That was worth a fortune… now it's worth _nothing!_ AHHHH!_"

"_Mom says Sharpe needs obedience classes…_"

"_Are you home yet?_"

"_WHERE ARE YOU GUYS! WAH! SHARPE JUST SHREDED A COMIC BOOK I PAID FOR! MAKE IT STO-!_"

Rouge unplugged the phone just as Mephiles and Shadow exchanged strange looks.

"We should probably check on that…" Mephiles said before the three of the jumped up and hurried a few houses down.

The house seemed fine on the outside right now… but one could easily see Rae sitting on the doorstep, a large bag of kettle corn in one hand, Jak sitting next to her, and the mail in the other hand.

"Rae? What are you doing outside?"

The fox looked up and grinned just as Jak wagged his balding tail and hurried over to Mephiles to greet him.

"Ah! You're back! Sharpe has just been so mischievous! I went outside to get the mail, and he locked me out!"

"That sounds like him…" Mephiles petted Jak on his head. "What's with the bag of kettle corn?"

"I had it in my hands while I was going out. I've been munching on it since I've been stuck out here…" Her phone beeped and she whipped it out, checking her messages. "Oh! That's where she put it this time!"

"That's a new phone…" Shadow pointed out.

"Yep. My Chocolate died months ago, so I got a clamshell one. This one has Windows Mobile, so it's like a mini computer, and it links up to my computer…" Rae explained as she went over to the flowerbed and grabbed a stick to push a spider web encrusted flowerpot with a cactus aside and then took off her gloves and started to dig with her hands.

"Rae?"

"Mom hid the backup key here…" She explained. "We keep a spare in the weirdest of places in case this happens. Not the first time I've been locked out…" She pulled a plastic box out of the hole and opened the latch. "Yes!"

Within seconds, she unlocked the door and went in.

"Sharpe! Krystal! Kai! Mephy's back!"

In no time flat, Mephiles was nearly knocked over when three Chaos plowed into him.

"I see you guys missed me…" He laughed. "Sadly, I'm going to have to leave again…"

"What?"

"Chao?"

"Chao?"

"Chao?"

"Arf?"

Rae, Jak and the Chaos did this in almost a perfect unison.

"But, didn't you find what you needed?" Rae asked. "That's why you're back, right?"

"I wish it was that easy…" Mephiles sighed. "But, while we were there, our problem just got worse. Dark's brother is still around, and wants me dead for some reason, and Dark came back, but he needs my help…"

"Dark has a brother?"

"Kinda…" Shadow explained. "Dark and Iblis are two halves of one whole… and Mephiles is involved because Dark had been around him so much, that the two are too intertwined."

"Heh, weird…"

"Nothing ever phases you, does it, Rae?"

"Not often… I lack the understanding the concept of immediate danger…" Rae tilted her head.

"You poor thing…"

"Why?"

"Never mind…" Mephiles shook his head. "Anyway, we have to collect the Emeralds, and that means we're going to be gone for a while… so I need you to watch my Chaos again…"

"No problem…" Rae said. "Whatever helps…"

"But Sharpe was a problem…"

"I can handle him…"

Mephiles eyed her with a weird look before looking more closely at Jak.

"Is it just me… or did Jak get gray? Or grayer?" He said slowly.

"Jak's getting old… he can't climb the stairs anymore, and I need to be careful not worsen his arthritis…" Rae was eyeing Jak sadly. "He's probably got a few more years on him max… I hope there's a lot of time… but, really… he could go at any moment…"

"Oh, my… what are you going to do without him?"

"I'll have to see when that happens… I've got a kitty that I'm raising now that's going to help with it. He likes Jak, and he's Pammy's son."

"Pammy… where have I heard that name before?" Shadow scratched his head.

"That little cat I had a picture of on my old phone." Rae said. "So you remember me talking about her?"

"Kinda…"

"Well, she's sitting in the window right now…"

Sure enough, a skinny calico tabby cat was sitting in the window. She had long whiskers, long fur on her back and tail, yellow eyes with green tinge and the way she sat gave off the air of her being quite a sight to see; her head held high, and her fluffy white chest fur puffed out.

"Wow, she's pretty…" Rouge said, looking at her.

"She's my cousin's cat. And that…" Rae pointed to a fluffy little cat trying to get up on the window sill, taking him a few tries to get up to the calico tabby. "Is Scooch, her son."

"He looks just like Jak!"

"Weird, huh?" Rae giggled. "Dunno why… but Scooch just happened to look like Jak. Coincidentally, her first litter had a kitty like that with longer fur. My cousin nicknamed him Sig after the guy in one of his favorite shows. The Deadliest Catch. It's a crab fishing show…"

"Pammy had more of them?"

"Yeah… two litters of four… but we had to give the others to other homes. I got to keep him because he looked like Jak, and I haven't had a cat of my own since I lost my Jamy Kitty to that unfortunate accident of him eating spoiled food with corn in it." Rae said, looking behind herself. "Scooch is quite rambunctious… I can't leave him alone for too long… or he gets in trouble. Anyway… one of these cats that live out here is his daddy… Pammy bred with a stray before we could get her fixed…" She looked back. "So, you're not leaving yet, are you?"

Mephiles was about to answer before Shadow said: "Rouge and I were thinking of getting him checked out with Dr. Thizon. He got hurt back in Soleanna, and we just want to make sure it's not going to cause problems."

"WHAT?!" Mephiles said loudly. "I don't want to go to the doctor's! I'm fine!"

"You still have that neck bruise, and we still haven't forgotten that chest pain… and a number of other things…"

"I'm not going…"

* * *

Half an hour later leads us to them waiting in the waiting room, Mephiles folding his arms across his chest, glaring at Shadow.

"I said I didn't want to go…"

"It's just to make sure you're alright."

"I'm fine…"

"That's what you say…"

Mephiles smacked Shadow in the arm, which made Shadow smack him back, which led to a smackfest between them, hands and arms flailing in that air as they fought like little kids.

"Boys! Stop!" Rouge yelled. "You're acting childish!"

The two hedgehogs had stopped in mid smack, hands frozen in the air.

"He started…" Shadow said.

"Did not!" Mephiles shouted.

Rouge rolled her eyes.

_Boys…_

_

* * *

_Yes, Rouge... _boys..._ XD

So, hope you liked this chapter ^^


	13. The Second and Third Emeralds

I believe as of now, this story now has more words than "Relapse", even though it's a little more than half as many chapters ^^

And this story is far from finished ^^

Alrighty then... quite a chapter ahead for you guys. ^^

Enjoy ^^

* * *

Needless to say, Mephiles didn't enjoy his visit with Dr. Thizon, as usual.

"I wasn't expecting to see you for quite a while longer…" Thizon said as Mephiles folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at him. "I see your foot healed up pretty fast…"

"As it turns out, Mephiles has healing powers…" Shadow explained. "He was able to heal his foot so he could walk…"

"Well, that's interesting…" Thizon nodded. "So, what's the reason for this visit?"

"It's a bit complicated, but in short, Mephiles was hurt earlier, and was almost strangled…" Rouge said. "We're just worried about the injury, and hope it's not too bad."

"I see, is that all?"

"Well, he also has had a panic attack again, and something that he said felt like it, but he wasn't panicking."

Mephiles huffed, not at all happy about this.

"I see. So you said he said that if felt like it… but he wasn't panicking?"

"He said that it felt like he was being stabbed." Shadow said. "Granted, he was just having somewhat of a bad day, so we hoped that it was just stress catching up to him. Still, we figured that we should have you check him out."

"Wise choice…" Thizon nodded. "Let have a look at his neck first…"

Mephiles frowned, but was nice enough not to make a fuss over it.

"Who tired to do this to him?"

"You remember Dark, right?" Shadow said.

"Yes… you mentioned him last month…" Thizon nodded. "Are you saying that he did this?"

"Not exactly-"

"It wasn't Dark." Mephiles said, speaking for the first time since he got there. "His flame of a brother managed to take control of him and tried to kill me."

Thizon blinked.

"I have to say, given last months events, I'm not too surprised." He muttered. "You sure seem to attract a lot of injuries. I'm more astounded that you don't have any lasting damage from all of this. The last time you were here, we weren't expecting you to wake up for at least a week. And you surprised us with just a few hours."

"What can we say?" Shadow snickered. "He's quite a fighter and a survivor."

"Darn straight!" Mephiles said.

"Still, I'd appreciate it a bit more if you hadn't nearly obliterated the room and broke my glasses. These are expensive to keep replacing…" Thizon pushed his glasses higher up on his face, and one could see a layer or two of scotch tape around the nose of the frame. "And it takes a few weeks to get a replacement pair…"

"Like I said before, I was scared!" Mephiles said, frowning. "Think about it: I blacked out for a while after I nearly died, and woke up in a room with none of my friends, and I didn't even know we won against Dark or not, so I'm still confused, and was in some amount of pain…"

"All the same, next time, ask questions first, then decide whether or not it's worth it."

Mephiles merely grunted in response.

* * *

After the checkup, it was decided that Mephiles' bruise was already healing and shouldn't be a problem to him in a few days.

Now they needed to continue their quest for the Emeralds.

Stopping by the store on the way to the museum, where the red one was kept, they picked up a few backpacks to carry the Emeralds they found, as well as a few needed things for their journey, such as winter wear in case they needed to go to a cold location, and so on.

"I was just thinking…" Mephiles mused. "What if that snow I saw with the yellow Emerald a clue to the next one?"

"Perhaps, but there is a lot of places where it snows." Shadow pointed out.

"But, with luck, it might be close by." Mephiles countered. "Where is the closest place where it snow from here?"

"Not in this city…" Rouge said. "But the nearest is Ice Cap. It's a mountain region, but you need to go to the Mystic Ruins to get there."

"How?"

"There's a train that's in Station Square that takes you there, but we'd need to take a train from here to get to Station Square."

It was no problem for them to retrieve the red Emerald, Shadow storing that one in his backpack as Mephiles jumped away from it, growling in contempt.

After two seemingly long train rides to Mephiles, who was displeased to find that much like the airsickness from the plane, he also got that same feeling on a train.

On the second train ride, Mephiles' muzzle was gaining a greenish tinge to it, Mephiles half glad that he hadn't eaten anything yet, and therefore had nothing to for his stomach to send up.

"You doing okay, Meph?" Shadow noticed Mephiles sink in his seat a bit, the poor hedgehog looking quite ill at the moment.

"… I hate these things…" He grunted, hugging his stomach, which was starting to cramp. Starting to feel dizzy and tired, he added: "… wake me up when we get there…"

No sooner, it seemed, had he fallen asleep was someone shaking him awake.

"Huh? Whuzgoinon?" He mumbled, rubbing his watery eyes with the back of his hands. He yawned and realized that the train had stopped. "We there already?"

"You were asleep for about an hour, but yes…" Shadow told him.

"That's good… hopefully, I'll feel better once we get off… I was starting to get sick…" Mephiles yawned again, still a bit tired.

Mephiles had to admit, Mystic Ruins was quite a pretty place. It was quite unlike the city, and as far as he could see, there were only two buildings in sight from where he stood. By the area that led to a waterfall, he could see a large purple cat sitting down and fishing, a small green frog next to him, hopping up and down excitedly.

"Wow…" Mephiles said as they made it down the station platform. "Just… wow…"

"Sonic's friend Tails has a workshop here, so we might be able to catch him and see if he has any Emerald tracking devices…" Shadow explained. "He's quite a genius and no doubt his ones are more accurate and have a wider range."

"How old is he, by the way?"

"About eight years old…"

"_What?_" Mephiles wasn't sure if he had heard that right. "He's younger than me. Is it safe for him to be doing that?"

"You shouldn't underestimate someone just because of their age." Rouge said with a smirk. "Tails has done quite a few accomplishments that astounded even the President. He once even single handedly faced up against Eggman, and defused a bomb that was about to obliterate Station Square. He's even created aircrafts that were able to withstand the environments of outer space."

"You're kidding…" Mephiles was convinced that that was just an exaggeration.

"Well, you'll see when you meet him." Shadow said. "I don't think he's at his workshop right now. His plane isn't in the runway, so he must be adventuring with Sonic…"

"So, which way to Ice Cap? All I see right now is more desert-y than snowy…"

"It's been a while since I've been here, so I'm not quite sure…" Rouge said, looking around. "We might have to ask for directions…"

The cat that was fishing , as it turned out, was someone whom Shadow and Rouge had met during a battle against a Sonic lookalike robot, who was named Metal Sonic. The purple cat's name was, unsurprisingly, Big, and the frog's name was, again, so surprise, Froggy.

The cat tilted his head and said: "Have we met before? You look awfully familiar…"

"It was a while ago, but yes…" Shadow said. "We and several other people were fighting against a crazy robot, and you had a couple of friends with you, Amy and Cream."

"Wait… he knows that little rabbit I met at the Chao Garden?" Mephiles said. "Wait… she got to fight that thing too? But, she's like six years old!"

"There were a few people younger than you, Meph…" Shadow said before returning to his talking with the cat. "I'm sure you remember that."

"Oh, of course! That mean robot took my friend, Froggy, and the cute rabbit's Chao's brother! Then he tried to do all sorts of bad stuff, I don't like him!" Big reeled in his line and set his fishing pole down. "And then we all helped that nice blue hedgie who helped me save Froggy the time before that, and those pretty gems made him all gold. But, at least I got my polliwog pal back, and that hedgie and his buddies fixed everything."

"Okay, so now that we both are reacquainted again… we need to know how to get to the mountains from here."

"Oh, that place has such wonderful fish!" Big grinned and nodded, Froggy hopping excitedly. "That tunnel by the train takes you right to it."

"Thank you so very much…" Shadow thanked him. "Good luck with that fishing…"

The tunnel was quite long. It seemed to stretch on for quite a while, and as the trio went on, the air around them began to chill, their breaths becoming puff clouds of vapors.

"I think now would be the time to put on our snow stuff…" Rouge said. "The air is just going to get colder…"

Shadow had gotten a light blue hat that covered his ears, a matching scarf and thick white mittens to keep his hands from freezing.

Mephiles had also gotten a hat, and scarf, which were green in color and didn't need anything for his hands and feet, since they were less likely to get cold due to his crystals.

Rouge, on the other hand, lacking the presence of as much fur as the two boys, had to don a sweater, a hooded jacket with fuzz, gloves that were water resistant, and a host of other things to try to counter the cold weather. She had chosen them to be in shades of pink and purple, to match her usual attire.

The tunnel began to have an iced over look, hinting that they were very close.

When they got in, they found that the tunnel led to a cavern inside the mountain, with plenty of iced over ponds and icicles hanging dangerously from the ceiling.

They took no time in hurrying out of there and into another tunnel that led to another cave that had yet another tunnel that finally led to the mountain top.

The Emerald Radar led them not too far from where they exited, finding the Emerald to be sitting on the ground, its aqua color making very easy to see against the snow.

Mephiles wanted to be the one to carry it, and for a moment, nothing seemed to have happened.

Then red flag signs seem to rise up.

Mephiles was clutching the aqua colored Emerald in his clawed hands tightly, shivering from the onset of cold, but muttered something under his breath, as if he was talking to himself.

Shadow eyed him anxiously as he saw the crystal hedgehog begin to stumble.

"You okay Meph?"

Mephiles nodded slowly, gasping suddenly as he released a hand from the Emerald and shook it as if it had burned him.

"I'm f-fine…" He muttered, lowering his head. "But this Emerald is giving off a lot of heat… or something…"

"Need me to hold it for a moment?"

Mephiles' head shot up and he narrowed his eyes and frowned.

"I said I'm fine!" He snapped harshly, his eyes glinting madly as he clutched the Emerald tighter. "I can handle it!"

The look in his eyes had not passed undetected. Shadow blinked and reached out for the Emerald.

"I think you've been around this too long…" He said simply. "You're starting to act weird…"

Mephiles bristled his fur on his back as Shadow neared, taking a step back.

"That's for me to decide!" He hissed. "It hasn't been too long! I just got it a few minutes ago!"

"Mephiles… give me the Emerald now…" Shadow said cautiously. "You're not acting right, so you may be having a reaction…"

"I am not!" Mephiles barked. "Just leave me-!"

He suddenly clapped a hand to his head and dropped to one knee in the snow, grunting in pain with his eyes squeezed shut.

"Mephiles!"

Rouge and Shadow were now beside him, trying to get the Emerald out of his hands as they tried to get him to respond. Rouge held him up to keep him from collapsing in the icy snow as Shadow tried to pry his fingers from the gem.

Then he opened his eyes slowly… or rather… it wasn't Mephiles who did that.

Cat-slitted pupils contracted in a moment of fear as Dark's eyes scanned the white frozen area quickly, his expression quite confused.

His eyes shifted to a very dumbstruck Shadow and he merely blinked before swiveling his eyes to the Emerald in his tightly clenched hand.

Then something happened that astounded both the black hedgehog and the white bat…

Dark's eyes widened and he threw the Emerald from himself, watching it land several feet away.

"_Sorry about that… He was getting unruly…_" Dark explained as if it wasn't at all a problem that he was in control of Mephiles' body, had looked Shadow in the eyes and threw a perfectly good Chaos Emerald away, then proceeded to converse with his known enemy. "_Like me… that Emerald begins to twist his thoughts after a prolonged exposure. If I didn't do something about it, he was going to go mad…_"

Shadow and Rouge blinked and let go of him, letting him collapse in the snow.

"_Oh, geeze… what was that for?_" He growled, sitting up and brushing the snow off of him before taking note of the color of scarf he, or rather Mephiles, was wearing. "_Green? Not the color I would have chose…_" He removed the backpack Mephiles had been wearing and tossed it to Shadow. "_Here… I have no use for that Emerald either…_"

"Dark… what are you doing here, and what did you do with Mephiles?" Shadow narrowed his eyes at the demon.

"_Must I repeat myself? I said that he was getting unruly because the Emerald was driving him mad. He's in his mind right now until he cools off, otherwise he was going to fight you for the Emerald. I'm taking over right now because otherwise, he'd be unconscious, and doing that in these temperatures would result in a serious case of hypothermia, and perhaps… his death. I don't think that would be fitting of an end to him…_"

"How do we know you aren't the one causing all that madness?" Shadow asked suspiciously.

"_Questioning? That's good, Shadow… it lets you know what's going on…_" Dark said, getting up from the snow and wagging his tail to try to get the blood circulation to heat up just a little. "_I suppose you can't really be sure, and that's up to you to decide whether or not you want to trust me. I'll admit that I haven't been the most trustworthy person at all, but I'll also admit that for right now, as long as Iblis is trying to kill Mephiles… I won't be your enemy. The both of us are sharing a common goal, and that is making sure that Mephiles does not get killed by my flame of a brother._"

"Why would you even care about what happens to Mephiles if you've wanted him dead before?" Rouge spoke up.

Dark shifted his eyes at her and nodded slowly.

"_Ah, yes… Mephy told me that your name was 'Rouge'… He made sure to correct me after I had been calling you 'That Bat' this whole time…_" He said needlessly. "_Perhaps Mephiles mentioned this before… I want to be sure that I'm the one given that chance to kill him. Either of our final deaths are to be determined by which one of us is indeed the most powerful. It is to be decided after a battle between just the two of us, with no help from anyone. We are to fight as equals, and only that. If Iblis were to interfere with that, then I would no longer have a purpose, as well as no way to be gotten rid of. Only Mephiles has the true strength to do that…_"

"Why does it matter to you if Meph beats you or not?" Shadow said edgily. "Wouldn't you be glad that Meph was killed either way? And why would you want him to be given a chance to get rid of you?"

"_My dear Shadow… the matters between Mephy and I are quite complicated…_" Dark rolled his eyes. "_Though I was created in the accident eleven years ago, I was only truly given life once I made contact with a living thing, which happened to be a little brown hedgehog that escaped from his cage…_"

"But you said before that you were created from the dark thoughts in Meph's mind…"

"_That was what I thought for some time as well…_" Dark sighed. "_It seemed that I too had a bit of amnesia from the accident, having forgotten exactly how I came to be. I'm sure that you would believe that Mephiles' own fears and thoughts are what gave me power and life as time went on. Mephy's fears were what, for want of a better term, nurtured me until I became powerful enough to make my first move. Unintentionally, Mephiles became my caregiver over time, though he was convinced I was his friend. Perhaps, if I wasn't kept alive through negative energy… we might have been friends. He was so excited when we first met, glad that someone was around to help him cope with the darkness within the Scepter. At times, I was unsure why, but I felt inclined to give him a few lessons in things. You might have noticed that slip at least once during that fight last time, when I briefly noted how he should try to attack me…_"

"This is getting confusing…"

"_I understand why…_" Dark nodded. "_But, there is a complicated relationship between Mephiles and I that stems from our time as both friends and enemies. At first, I had wanted to use him merely as a puppet for my own reasons, but as time passed, I tried to be more of a teacher to him, but only educating him in how to use his power for his own gain. He didn't know any better, and since I was the only one around… he wasn't too keen on getting me to leave…_"

"And you're saying..?"

"_Mephiles and I are now one in the same, but from different ends of the rope or what ever you want to use as an analogy. It is up to the both of us to decide which one of us is to survive and which one of us is to live. Mephiles fights for others and I fight for only myself. He represents altruism, and I represent egotism. But, there are time when I will breakaway from that and help him if it is needed, only because it will help insure that that final battle will indeed happen…_"

"And, aren't you worried that you're going to get attached to him and instead hold back when that happens?"

Dark blinked and then threw his head back and laughed.

"_Oh, heaven's no! Of course not! If he is the one capable of all that, then by reasoning, I should not be. Besides, I'm selfish!_" Dark added, folding his arms and smirking. "_I look out only for myself unless it benefits me to do otherwise…_" He sighed. "_I'm going to return to the back of his mind, hopefully by now, he's had some time to recover…_"

With that, he closed his eyes and in a few seconds, they were Mephiles' colors when they opened again.

However, his eyes immediately darted to the Emerald, which was sitting close to the edge of the flat part they were standing on, no doubt a part that was unstable and perhaps just a layer of snow.

"Mephiles… what are you doing?" Shadow said slowly as Mephiles got ready to spring at it. "Meph, don't… it's not safe…"

Almost as if he hadn't heard him, Mephiles made a mad dash for it anyway, Rouge unable to catch him by the arm or anything in her attempt to stop him as he pushed passed Shadow.

"MEPHILES! STOP!" They both cried as the crystal hedgehog pounced on the Emerald and sat up, holding it above his head and laughing in a singsongishly tone, not at all noticing that he had weakened the snow he was sitting.

"I got it! I got it! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Mephiles squealed excitedly, ignoring Dark's frantic reprimanding as he continued to chant. "I got it! It's mine! Ha ha ha ha ha _ha!_"

"Mephiles! Get away from there before it collapses!" Shadow barked, not daring to try to go get him, knowing that the weight of the two of them would break the icy cover.

"I got the Emerald! I got the Emerald! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Mephiles didn't seem to hear him at all. He simply just continued his mad cackle of excitement as he waved the power gem above his head.

Shadow and Rouge watched in horror as they could see the ice crack slowly, the line spreading slowly along the outline of Mephiles' sitting place.

"Shadow! Do something!"

"I can't! If I go over there, it's going to break and send us both down the mountain!" Shadow explained frantically. "It's like he can't even _hear_ us!"

"Darkie's mad! Darkie's mad! But I've got the Emerald! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Mephiles was laughing, completely lost in his insanity.

Then his ear twitched, and perhaps a moment too late, he realized his mistake.

"Oh, cra-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Mephiles disappeared from sight as the platform of snow collapsed and sent him screaming down the mountain, the commotion causing an avalanche on the way down.

"MEPHILES!" Shadow and Rouge bellowed in horror as their friend was caught in the middle of this unfortunate disaster.

"What are we going to do, Shadow?!"

Shadow slung Mephiles' backpack over his shoulder and hurried down the slight slope to the side, Rouge following after him.

"Follow that avalanche and find him as soon as possible! When it stops, we'll Chaos Control to the bottom and look for him! C'mon!"

* * *

Enveloped in a frozen blanket of snow, Mephiles fought hard against the current as he tried to find his way out, clutching the Emerald tightly in his hands.

'_You idiot!_' Dark barked. '_They told you not to go after that Emerald! They _told_ you! Now look what you've done!_'

_Dark, I think the more important matter here is me not dying… Oh, dear God! Which way is up?!_

'_Don't fight against the current! It's going to wear you out, lose too much air and weaken you! Just let it carry you until you come to a stop and then try to burrow your way out!_'

Mephiles reluctantly did what he was told and let himself get pulled by the current until he felt the avalanche stop.

_Dark? Which way is up? I can't tell!_

'_I don't know! Just start moving before to get hypothermia!_'

Mephiles would have nodded if he could move his head. He cursed lightly when he realized that he had lost his wool cap during the fall, and could now no longer feel any feeling in his ears.

_Dark? I can't move… the snow's packed around me…_

'_I've got an idea… remember how your orbs give off so heat?_'

_Yes…_

'_Focus on making one in you hands and I'll amplify it… the heat should melt some of the ice and make it easier._'

_Dark… it's too cold… I don't know if I can do it…_

'_For the sake of both of us, you can!_' Dark snapped. '_Now focus and you can do it!_'

Mephiles grunted and put all his fading thoughts into forming an orb in his freezing hand, finding it to be much harder than usual.

'_That's it… you've almost got it…_' Dark urged.

Mephiles was jolted to his senses at the tone Dark was using.

_Dark… were you just encouraging me?_

'_Maybe I was, and maybe not… does it matter?_'

_Well, it makes it easier to do something hard when someone is cheering you on…_

'_If that's what makes it easier, than so be it… Just don't lose focus…_'

_Dark… I'm getting a headache… I can't feel my arms and legs… I can't do this…_

'_Yes, you can! You've had worse from me! If you die now, Iblis is going to get the Emeralds!_'

Mephiles felt a part of him wake up, and he closed his eyes as he focused on creating the orb, feeling a spark in his hand as a rush of heat began to wash over his hand.

'_You're doing it! Keep it up, make it a little more powerful and I'll make it bigger to melt some of this snow…_'

_Dark, hurry up… I don't know how much longer I can do this… _

'_Just a little more and I can do it… keep it up, almost got it… perfect! Hold on!_'

Just then, Mephiles felt the surge of energy that was Dark's and felt the ice beginning to melt, freeing his arm as he got enough room to move. More of the ice melted, making a small chamber for him before he collapsed straight down on his back, telling him that the way out was directly above him, and he had been on his back since the avalanche stopped.

'_Good, now disperse it so you don't use up the rest of your Chaos Energy, and start digging upward with your claws…_'

_How am I going to pull myself up?_

'_You're a hedgehog, more importantly a rodent. This will just like burrowing, which is bred into your instincts... Just keep moving and don't stop until you're out…_'

Mephiles nodded slowly and dug his claws into the layer of ice above him. He carved out a hole that would be wide enough for him to be able to dig his feet into the sides. Then he started to burrow upward, pulling his body up as he cleared more space, holding the Emerald in his teeth.

It seemed to stretch on forever as he dug his frozen tunnel, Dark trying his best to keep him motivated.

'_I have an idea…_' Dark said suddenly as Mephiles faltered for a moment and slid a couple if feet down. '_How about a story of some kind?_'

_Dark, now is not the time… _Mephiles growled.

'_No, no… hear me out on this. How about one about a little hedgehog who never gave up?_'

_If it'll keep you talking to me, okay then… _Mephiles was freezing too much to realize what Dark was trying to aim at.

'_Very well then… some time ago, there came into existence this hedgehog. He was much like his siblings in appearance and was really nothing out of the ordinary…_'

_Uh huh…_

'_The little hedgehog was quite determined, however, to find out if there was something more to his existence then just sitting around all day and do nothing but eat and sleep and run in a wheel. The others thought he was quite an odd little guy, but that never once deterred him from his goal of finding out…_'

_Hmm…_

'_One day, however, he succeeded in his goal of escaping his mediocre life and was pulled into the greatest adventures one could dream of. From this, he met and befriended many people, all of whom grew fond of him. He held each of his favorites quite dear, and would stop at nothing to protect them, even if it was the cost of his own health and safety. Though, all this was at the cost of his own family, whom he never saw again until many years passed._'

Mephiles grew silent as he started to understand what Dark was telling him.

'_The little hedgehog was upset about this, and at one point, blamed his most treasured friend, the one who he had tried so hard to gain acceptance from. Despite this tragedy, he was comforted to know that he had someone, or rather a couple of them, to help him cope. His two most dearest friends took care of him when he needed them, and in return, he tried his best to protect them, even if he was in over his head._'

Mephiles dug faster, trying to get out of the frozen trap.

'_That little hedgehog pushed his physical boundaries until he was unable to move anymore, but still found the strength to push himself up off the ground when what he held dear was threatened. He always gave more than his hundred percent in each one of his adventures and even captured the hearts of those that once hated him. He wasn't the bravest, or the strongest one around, but he was willing to give it a try if it was needed._'

Mephiles pushed his hands against the ice once more and felt his heart lift as he pushed it up and a beam of light shone in the snow tunnel, Mephiles grasping the surface and pulling himself out slowly as he gasped for air deeply, getting to his feet and wiping the snow from his fur.

'_And now… that little hedgehog just overcame one of his toughest challenges yet…'_

"D-dark?" Mephiles stuttered from the frigid air, taking the Emerald from his mouth before tried to speak. He inhaled deeply before continuing. "H-how d-does that st-story end?"

'_Ah, my dear Mephiles… _that_ ending is up to you…_'

Mephiles nodded with a small smile as the wind picked up and made the air even colder. The hedgehog swayed unsteadily for a moment, stumbling back as a spell of vertigo hit him suddenly. Then his eyes rolled back and he collapsed face first to the frozen ground, too tired and cold to try to get up.

He could hear Dark faintly trying to keep him from falling asleep, but Mephiles was too overwhelmed by the elements to keep his eyes open.

…

…

…

…

…

…

… _Thank you, Dark…_

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

* * *

It wasn't long until Mephiles was found, nearly frozen to death and quite stiff from the cold. A couple of feet away from him was a hole in the snow, just about big enough to hint that he had dug his way through.

Rouge and Shadow didn't dare think how long it would have been until they found him if he hadn't had that green scarf on.

He was breathing quite shallowly when he was found, and his pale muzzle was nearly white. Rouge tried to get him to stop shaking so horribly by trying to transfer some of her body heat to him, taking off her jacket to where she had just her sweater and wrapping it around him, puling the hood over his ears to try to heat those up as well.

"What are we going to do, Shadow? He needs help fast and we don't know where the nearest hospital is."

"We have three Emeralds right now, so it should be powerful enough to get us to Station Square from here. There's a hospital there."

Mephiles shuddered visibly under his shaking and whispered something weakly under his breath, opening his eyes just slightly, a shine of green under his eyelids. Then, his stiff body relaxed a bit and he latched onto her, trying to get warmer. Then his eyes closed and he sighed, losing consciousness once again…

* * *

Ah, perhaps letting Mephy touch that Emerald was a bad idea.

But, at least he made it out to the surface, thanks to Dark ^^

Who know the little demon cared enough?

Hope you enjoyed this one ^^


	14. Close Call At The Hospital

Okay... and we're moving on!

* * *

"_Remarkable… Truly remarkable…_"

Mephiles' eyelids twitched and he opened them exhaustedly, finding himself to be staring upward into the abyss. He was lying on the couch, blanket draped over him.

"Owww… my head…" Mephiles moaned pathetically, dragging out the last word as he cringed, bringing a hand to his forehead with great difficulty, trying to counter the terrible headache he had.

"_That's to be expected after falling down a mountain and fighting against freezing temperatures to make it to the surface…_" Dark seemed impressed. "_You've really outdone yourself this time… You really surprised me…_"

"Ugh… Dark..? Is that you…? Or am I just imagining it..?" Mephiles mumbled, opening an eye to stare at his doppelganger, who was sitting on the armrest near his feet, arms crossed and his familiar smirk on his face.

"_I can assure you that it is indeed I, and that your sluggishness right now is due to having a dramatic drop in your body temperature. Your friends are getting you treatment now, but you'll still be cold for a while…_"

"… How come..? Can't you just do that… heat up thingy with me..? Like you did last time..?" Mephiles couldn't find the words he wanted to use, feeling like his brain was only half awake and working.

"_Oh, dear boy, no! That would be a fatal mistake!_" Dark shook his head. "_Reheating your body too quickly could cause organ failure! Besides, I trust that the hospital will follow through with the necessary procedures to ensure that you make a swift recovery…_" Dark reached his hand into one of the couch cushions and extracted his notebook, flipping through a few pages. "_I advise you to keep your movements to a minimum right now, lest you worsen._"

"… Dunno if I can move that much anyway… I feel numb all over… hey, Dark…" He added, looking up with a trace of worry. "… My ears are still there, right..? I can't feel them at all…"

"_You still have them; they just feel numb because they received quite a beating from the cold._" Dark said, not looking up from his notes. "_Give it some time, and you'll be feeling better. Right now, you're in a coma on the outside world, and Shadow and Rouge are very worried about you. They were almost afraid you died for real this time when you stopped breathing, but the doctors were able to revive you in a mere half a minute, so no damage was done to you. You are breathing through an oxygen mask right now, and your vitals are being monitored._"

"… I shouldn't have gone after that Emerald…" Mephiles murmured, eyes starting to sting with tears as he reminisced on his mistake. "… I could have been killed… I'm such an idiot…"

"_Yes, that was a dumb move, and yes, you could have been killed…_" Dark said looking up from a page. "_But you were not as yourself. That Emerald's effect on you was delusion, and tricked you into thinking that there was no danger at all. You were also getting mad at Shadow because you were convinced that he was going to take the Emerald and use it against you…_"

"… I really don't remember _that…_"

"_Sadly, much like natural delusion, it left you with hardly a recollection of what had happened. That Emerald poisons your mind… which the effects can be felt here as well when you have contact with it…_"

"… But, I had it in my teeth later… why wasn't it doing that again..?"

Dark raised an eyebrow and flipped through a few more pages before answering.

"_That's a very good question. I believe it's because Chaos Auras are more concentrated in some places than others. For example, your tail has less than your hands, with is what channels it. Your chest, which also houses a few very important organs, has a more concentrated spot as opposed to your stomach, and cannot withstand as long of contact than if an Emerald was resting on your belly. That is why you yourself can withstand more physical hits to the chest than in your stomach. Conversely, your ears and nose have more concentrated Auras than your eyes, this is what gives you your excellent ability to hear and sniff out things long before you see them. And judging by the evidence, you do not absorb any Chaos radiation through your teeth, and your most likely place is your hands._" Closing the notebook, he continued. "_If you are just beginning to wake up here now, then that's a good sign, and you're beginning to recover. Your brain is waking up, so in a few more hours at the most, you should be regaining consciousness. I suggest that the easiest way to do that is to stop asking me questions and go back to sleep._" Dark stared at him with a bit of a disapproving frown. "_The sooner you do that, the sooner you can get out of that coma and stop your friends from worrying._"

Mephiles groaned as he tried to roll over on his side, but he felt too weak to do that. Still trembling from the cold, that attempt at moving easily exhausted him, and before he knew it, he was out of it again…

* * *

It was some time before he opened his eyes again, this time the cold feeling not as intense. He was still chilled, but now he wasn't as stiff. And his headache was gone.

Dark was right; he _was_ wearing an oxygen mask.

His ear twitched at the sound of faint beeping, which was in a steady pattern, so he guessed that it must have been monitoring his heart rate and other vital signs.

Then he was glad that he could move his ears, moreover he was glad that he knew that they were still there.

Tilting his head to the side with difficulty, he found Rouge sitting in a chair, trying to solve, what he could guess was, a sudoku puzzle.

She paused for a moment and looked up, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that Mephiles had woken up.

"Oh, thank God…" She muttered to herself before setting the puzzle down and scooting the chair forward. "They didn't think you were going to wake up for at least another couple of days. You were nearly frozen solid when we found you…"

"… I figured… as much…" Mephiles managed, the oxygen mask impairing some of his ability to speak. "… Dark helped me dig out… y'know…" He added, wanting to be sure that Dark was given credit for his help.

Rouge wondered for a moment if he was delirious since this was such an absurd comment, but she could see just by looking at his eyes, that he was just as sane as ever.

"How?"

"… He helped me melt some of the ice… and made sure I didn't stop digging my way out… told me a story about myself, even… said that I get to choose the ending…" Mephiles whispered, before closing his eyes for a moment. "… I was so stupid… I should have listened to you and Shadow… then I wouldn't be here right now…"

"What made you go after that Emerald anyway? Didn't you see that the ice was unstable?"

"… Sadly, no… Dark told me that I was still under the effects of the Emerald… He said it was poisoning my thoughts… I didn't snap out of it until just before the ice broke…" He opened his eyes again. "… Dark said I was starting to get mad at Shadow… I didn't hurt anyone… did I?" He asked hopefully.

"No. Unless you want to count yourself…" Rouge said truthfully. "It's good that you're awake now… you've been in a coma for two days straight…"

"… That could explain why I feel so hungry… that means that I haven't eaten since Thursday…" Mephiles added, eyes widening a bit. "… Two days..? That's going to set us back on time to get the rest of the Emeralds…" He blinked and added: "… Where's Shadow..? I don't see him…"

"He's asleep on the other side of you, just turn you head if you can…"

Mephiles slowly moved his head to see that Shadow was asleep, sitting up in his chair, arms crossed and looking like he was about to fall out of the chair as he snored and snuffled in his sleep.

Rouge reached across the bed and tried to shake him awake, resulting in Shadow actually falling out of the chair, shouting: "I DIDN'T SELL YOUR CLOWNFISH!"

Mephiles couldn't help but laugh… that is until it turned into a coughing fit.

"Mephiles? What's wrong?" Rouge asked.

"Meph's awake?" Shadow was still a bit slow on the update of things as of the moment.

Mephiles was coughing quite terribly and for the first time since he woke up, he considered that he might have gotten sick.

"… Throat hurts… hard to breathe right…" He managed between each cough, clutching a hand to his chest as the other one was grasping the oxygen mask. "… Can hardly breathe right now…"

"Calm down and try to breathe in slowly…" Shadow offered, getting up from the ground and getting back in his chair. "That's straight oxygen there, so it's not going to hurt your lungs…"

Mephiles did as he was told, and his breathing pattern returned to normal, but his throat still felt sore.

"It's likely that you caught a cold from out there…" Shadow said, trying to offer some kind of answer.

"… How appropriate of a name…" Mephiles muttered bitterly. "… So now, I both am cold… and have a cold… I must remember to send Mother Nature a fruit basket for her sympathy…"

"Meph?"

"… I'm joking…" Mephiles breathed, locking gazes with Shadow.

"I see. So… are you hungry or anything?" Shadow said. "You've been unconscious for two days… and I don't know if you ate before we got to Mystic Ruins…"

"… Didn't eat because of the train… remember..? But, I can barely move too well right now… so I don't know if I can…" Mephiles explained. "… Besides… don't I need to be breathing this..?" He lifted his hand from the oxygen mask and waved a few fingers at it.

"They only said that it's needed if you can't breathe right." Rouge said.

"… Then I should keep it on for a while longer…"

"But, you haven't eaten anything in days…"

"… I'll do that after I can breathe right… I promise…" Mephiles took a deep breath. "… Y'know… I don't even remember getting that close to the edge…"

"You just kinda pounced on the Emerald and was chanting some kind of crazy little song you made up…"

"… I don't remember that…"

"You were insane for a moment and kept singing about how you got the Emerald, that it was yours and that… 'Darkie'… was mad…"

"… 'Darkie'..? Did I really call him _that..?_" Mephiles almost smirked, but he could hear Dark growl in his mind. "… I don't think that he likes that at all…"

"In all fairness, after what he's put you through… I think you should be allowed to…" Shadow said, rolling his eyes. "But, that's just what I think…"

"… I wouldn't be making fun of him right now…" Mephiles said. "… He's the reason I was able to get out of there…"

"Dark? Helped you?" Shadow was greatly surprised. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head on the way down the mountain?"

"… Positive… He helped me melt the ice with my orbs… and kept talking to me until I passed out…" Mephiles explained. "… Told me how to get out, too…"

"So he _is_ telling the truth?" Shadow said, folding his arms as he thought about this. "Dark is really trying to help you?"

"… You're having trouble believing him, huh..?" Mephiles said.

"That obvious?"

"… I had the same problem…" Mephiles smirked, drawing another breath. "… I still don't trust him completely… but I think we should give him a benefit of a doubt… We don't have to completely trust him, but we should consider it…"

"Well, we're just glad that you're okay…" Rouge said. "It's really amazing that you escaped that with out really being injured. No broken bones, no cuts… nothing!"

"And because of those crystals on your hands and feet…" Shadow added. "You didn't get frostbitten."

"… Lucky I have those then…" Mephiles grinned. "… So add this to the amazing odds I've beaten…"

"You always seem to be able to crack a joke, even if you're bedridden…" Shadow smirked and shook his head.

Mephiles coughed a laugh before yawning.

"… Huh… I guess I'm still tired…" He blushed as managed to scratch behind his ear.

"Well, no wonder… you're still cold…" Shadow noted as he touched a hand to his arm to test how well Mephiles was recovering. "Granted, you're not as bad as you were hours ago, but at least you're getting better."

"… I think I feel 'better' enough to try to eat now…" Mephiles sat up with a bit of difficulty and propped himself up with one arm to show that he was definitely getting better as he pulled the air mask off, drew another breath and grinned. "Just something before I fall asleep again…"

As it turned out, a bowl of chicken noodle soup had been set on the bedside table an hour or so ago, having a chance to cool down to near room temperature.

Mephiles didn't mind. He was just too hungry to care much.

As usual… they had to remind him to slow down, which was accompanied by the cheeks full of food, making him look like a blue, crystaly chipmunk.

"Give me a break! I haven't eaten in days!" He protested, having swallowed what seemed like half of the soup in one go, though the bowl was still more than half full. "C'mon!"

"But the last thing we need is for you to be asphyxiated by your own food…" Shadow rolled his eyes. "Just slow down…"

"'As-fix-y-ate'?" Mephiles had a confused look. "What's that?"

"Smothered or choked…"

"Oh… I'm… just going to slow down now…"

Within half an hour, Mephiles had finished his soup, which, being room temperature, had raised his body temperature a bit more, so his occasional shiver was less prominent. He had fallen asleep as well.

When he woke up again, the room was darker. It must have been night.

He twitched an ear and could faintly hear Shadow and Rouge outside of the room, discussing important matters about him with the doctor, who was not used to Mephiles' unusual maladies.

Curling up a bit more on his side, he was pleased to now that he didn't need to struggle to move now.

Listening to the sounds of the heart monitor, hearing the constant and steady pattern that was his heartbeat.

But…

He also heard something else…

Something that he knows shouldn't be there…

His heartbeat jumps up a few steps as he hears Dark curse.

'_Oh… he just doesn't give up!_'

_Dark? What's going on?_

'_Don't let him know you're awake… It's my brother…_'

"WHA-?" He voice was cut off before he could finish, Dark having done that.

'_You dolt! What are you doing!?_'

His fear got the better of him and he went against Dark's advice and rolled over, eyes getting wide when he saw Iblis standing at the foot of his bed, tapping his fingers against the frame, smirking.

Mephiles' heart rate jumped up even more and he trembled, sat up and inched towards the head of the bed, clutching the blanket to his chest.

"… _I could tell you that if you scream… I'd kill you…_" Iblis whispered dangerously. "_… But I was going to do that anyway…_"

Mephiles gulped.

* * *

"So, those crystals are part of him…" Shadow explained.

"Either way… because of those crystals, his extremities escaped frostbite." The Human said. "I might not know as much about Mobian anatomy as his regular doctor does… but I can assure you-"

Just then, there was an ear piercing shriek of terror and the heart monitor started beeping like crazy.

"What's wrong? His heart rate is off the charts!"

"He must be having a panic attack!" Shadow said frantically. "He can't take that much!"

Almost as if on cue… the screen flat lined.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

"MEPHILES!" Shadow and Rouge nearly broke the door down and to their horror, the room looked like a disaster hit it. The walls were toasted, the soup bowl was shattered, the monitor was sparking and a smoking bed was overturned, which was the bed that had had Mephiles in it…

But… Mephiles was no where to be seen…

…

…

…

"Oh… _no…_" Shadow grabbed his quills and yanked them down. "Oh… _God…_"

"We just left for a few minutes… how did he get in here?" Rouge whispered.

"What happened?" The doctor said. "Where is he?"

"We don't know!" Shadow snapped. "He must have been waiting for us to leave him alone! That _monster!_"

"I don't understand…"

"There was a lookalike that wanted to kill him!" Shadow barked while Rouge scanned her eyes around the room. "We left him alone, and he was already hurt! What did we do?!"

"Shadow… wait…" Rouge said suddenly, waving her hand to catch his attention. "I don't think he's dead…"

"What?"

"Look over there… under the bed… do you see it?" She pointed it out.

Shadow squinted. He saw a flicker of violet vapors.

"Is that..?"

Rouge was already beside it. Almost instantly, she grinned.

"He's okay… he's just melted…"

One could only imagine both Shadow's relief and the doctor's weird look he was giving them.

"Meph… Hey, Meph…" Shadow prodded the purple mist that was hiding under the bed. "Hey… we're here now…"

The mist pulsed a bit before pulling out from under the bed, and flared up for a moment as Mephiles' form became clear and soon he was sitting on the ground, eyes wide and scared, some of his fur visibly singed on his ears and face. His face was paler than normal, and he shifted his eyes to Shadow.

"… H-he left when I sc-screamed… It was D-dark's idea t-to hide like this… we c-can't be hurt if we're mist… Fire c-can't hurt us anyway…" His eyes shimmered before tears spilled and fell down his face. "… W-where were you..? You w-weren't th-there… you w-weren't there… W-where w-were you..?"

He was in shock. He gasped and shuddered, burying his face in his hands as he kept repeating: "… You w-weren't there… You w-weren't th-there…"

Before long, he threw himself at Rouge and in seconds, he was sobbing. He had been greatly shaken by this new near death encounter.

The bat could only wrap her arms around him, and whisper in his ear: "It's okay… we're here now…" as the rest of the room fell silent.

* * *

Ooh... close call again...

Poor Mephiles... Iblis needs to back off!


	15. Dark Loses It

Last Chapter: Mephiles survived the fall and escaped serious injury. As he recovered, Iblis decided to make his next move, only to have Mephiles escape just barely. Mephiles is now horribly shaken.

Enjoy ^^

* * *

Mephiles fell limp in Rouge's arms, having fainted after gasping for air while he cried. In other words, he was breathing too quickly, and that made him pass out… simple. Nothing more.

"Remarkable…" The doctor said slowly. "There's evidence of extreme temperatures all about this room… but your friend only has scorched fur…"

"Like he said… fire can't hurt him…" Shadow elaborated. "His… uh… darkside is the shadow of a flame, and fire can't hurt shadows… I _think_ that's how it works..?" Shadow made the last statement more of a question. "We're still learning… anyway… I'm glad he's okay…"

"Mind telling me what's going on?"

"It's a bit of a long story… but in short…" Shadow explained. "There's someone that looks like him that wants to kill him. Apparently, he thinks that Mephiles should have been dead eleven years ago… and he wants to finish that. Also, it seems that Mephiles holds the key power to stop him... but none of us have even figured it out yet…"

"I suppose I was better off not knowing…"

"We get that a lot… his regular doctor is so used to this by now, nothing surprises him…"

* * *

Mephiles inhaled and exhaled deeply, fingers wrapped around his ears and pulling them down in shock as he sat on the ground. There was a wide eyed stare in his expression, and one could see his lower jaw quiver.

Dark was watching him, and for some reason unknown to him… he was concerned.

_Aw, what's going on with me? I should be enjoying this… but I'm not... Maybe because it's not my doing… I can't be doing this because I feel sorry for him, or something, am I? Bah! Preposterous!  
_

Dark sighed and paced around Mephiles, flipping back a few pages in his notebook to find an answer. The pages were blank.

_Don't tell me that I haven't figured this out yet! Oh, blast… this better not be out of my control… _Dark threw the notebook in frustration.

"_I don't see why you're so upset… you got out of that one just fine… besides… fire can't hurt us!_" Dark tried to be as sincere sounding as possible… but it just seemed to come out as more of a harsh statement instead of what he wanted.

_That's probably because I can't be sincere if I wanted to… _Dark rolled his eyes. _Not like I care… but I can't think with his bothersome whine breaking my concentration… _

Mephiles started and looked up, ears tugged down further than they should be. He let go and they sprung back into place.

"That's not the point…" Mephiles said in a small voice, as if scared that this was going to set Dark off. "I'm upset because they only left for a few minutes and Iblis came in without anyone knowing… more over, while I was sick and hurt…" Mephiles looked at the ground, frowning. "Not that you would understand that kind of feeling… you're too dark and depressing to understand…"

"_Did you faint just to come here and insult me?_" Dark crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the black abysmal ground for a few moments.

"No… It was either that… or let the gasping progress to a panic attack…" Mephiles said truthfully. "That… and I wanted to thank you for giving me that idea to melt and hide… normally, I would have been too scared to have even thought of it…"

"_It's nothing special… you would have thought of it eventually…_" Dark shrugged. "_Besides… fire can't hurt us anymore than singeing our fur off… so my brother's trump card is useless against us. What you really need to worry about is his other abilities… such as… well… you already know that he nearly strangled you. He has the same physical strength as me in my body coupled with his, which is equivalent to your highest capability, which is achieved by you only when you lose your mind completely…_"

"Wait… I haven't done that yet…" Mephiles looked up.

"_Exactly…_" Dark said. "_There is indeed more to you than meets the eye… and that is why my brother wants you dead…_"

"I never asked for _any_ of that!" Mephiles jumped up and took a few steps away from Dark. "I never asked to have these stupid powers! I never asked for these stupid claws! I never asked for these stupid death threats! And I never asked for _you!_"

"_Be that as it may… isn't it also because of that… that you have all you have now? Your friends most of all?_"

Mephiles paused.

It was true… if he hadn't left that cage, he would have been killed with his family… but he would have never met Shadow or Rouge… Sharpe and Krystal had his traits, so they wouldn't exist… all of this in the passed year alone would have never happened…

Sure… he might have never been kidnapped by Eggman… but it was because of that that Shadow was driven to save him, and he got to become good friends with Rae and Jak.

If he never had left that cage, Dark would have never fused with him, and Iblis might have been able to twist things in his favor.

If he hadn't gotten Krystal and Sharpe… Kai wouldn't have had a home to go to.

He was the "secret" survivor of the Soleanna Disaster, and he alone knew what really happened. Without him… no one would know what really went down…

There were just so many people that knew him and enjoyed his company… if he wasn't around… what would have happened to those people?

In short… Mephiles realized just how important to the time stream was it that he had left the cage.

"_I see that you are thinking… and what is running through your mind is what is known as the 'Butterfly Effect'…_" Dark said.

"'Butterfly Effect?'" Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"_Yes… it's the theory that can be explained like this: A butterfly flaps its wings and it can cause a tornado in someplace on the opposite side of the globe._" Dark explained. "_Change one little detail about history, and the consequences can be quite disastrous if not perplexing…_"

"… That sounds familiar…"

"_That's because the us from an alternate future timeline tried the same thing, and it's effect was that it gave us memories of some events that had yet to happen in our time. He gave you your ability to See… and that is why you have your vision/dreams…_"

"My life is screwed up because of a mistake a me in another time made?!" Mephiles wasn't happy. "How is that fair!?"

"_It's not… that's life… deal with it…_"

"SHUT UP! SHUT _UP!_" Mephiles howled. "I don't care! I'm tired of-! Dark? Dark!"

At that moment, Dark had brought both of his now shaking hands to his head slowly and flashed an expression of pain before he collapsed. And, unlike that last few times… he didn't get up.

Mephiles' anger faded quickly, and he hurried over to his fallen doppelganger, realizing that something was not right.

Dark's face was the palest he had ever seen it. The demon was curled up, hands clutching his chest now as he trembled, his eyes squeezed shut and his teeth clenched in pain. He was panting rather quickly, that Mephiles was sure that from his experience in something similar that Dark was hyperventilating.

"Dark? Is something wrong? Dark?!" Mephiles had never seen that happen without warning with Dark before… in fact… he had never seen Dark collapse like that ever.

Mephiles couldn't believe it… Dark had been reduced to a shaking ball of fur and quills before him… all in a matter of mere seconds.

Then, as quickly as it had happened… it was over.

Dark uncurled slowly and let go of his chest, blinking his eyes open in confusion. Apparently, he couldn't remember how he fell, or why he was curled up to begin with.

That theory became more evident when he furrowed his brow and his ears swiveled back.

"_Tell me… what just happened?_"

"Believe it or not…" Mephiles said, trying to pick out his words carefully. "I think you just had something like a limited symptom attack…"

"_Impossible… I have never been afflicted by any symptoms similar to your panic attacks before… besides… in order to trigger that; I would have had to have been panicking… Which I don't…_"

"I have no idea why things are happening like this…" Mephiles crossed his arms. "But I'm just saying what I think…"

Dark frowned and glanced around for his notebook, finding that it had landed on the back of the couch, open and draped over it, must to his dislike. That meant that he had to get up to get it, and at the moment, he didn't feel like doing that.

He wasn't going to admit to Mephiles that he was feeling a bit lightheaded as well because that would only help confirm Mephiles' guess. He didn't like Mephiles being right…

Dark got to his feet slowly, trying to take care that Mephiles didn't see him stumble. In the several steps it took to get to the notebook, Dark held his nose in the air to prove his point. Once at the couch, he snatched the notebook and eased himself to the ground to sit against the couch and look through his notes…

Nothing…

The pages were still blank.

This time he threw it at Mephiles, who caught it in surprise.

"Whoa! I thought you said that this was important!" Mephiles held it under his arm. "I mean, you nearly lost it when I ripped a page…"

"_It is of no use to me when it refuses to answer my questions!_" Dark huffed, clenching his hands into fists and slamming them into the black ground. "_Take a look through it, Mephy Boy! It's blank! Empty! There's nothing in it!_"

Mephiles was a bit taken aback at the sudden return of his belittling nickname, but figured that Dark was losing his patience, and was slipping back into his old habit.

"_Look through it! There's nothing there!_" Dark was visibly getting angrier as the seconds passed. "_Nothing at all, Mephy Boy! Nothing at all!_"

Mephiles widened his eyes when Dark's Chaos Aura began to come to view, showing itself to be blood red and flickering like a wild flame. To complement that, it seemed, Dark's eyes began to glow the same red color as well, fading over his normal eyes.

At the sound of snarling and growling, Mephiles realized what was about to happen just as soon as Dark's fur began to stand…

Dark was about to have another rage fit.

Mephiles took a step back, realizing that since he was the only other living being in the area, he was the most likely target.

At the first step back, Dark hissed and lunged at Mephiles, who spun around and took off running as fast as he could, stopping when he realized Dark had stopped to pause for a breath, sitting crouched like a quadruped animal, as his gaze stayed fixed on Mephiles.

He smirked, showing off his identical fangs, causing Mephiles' heart to nearly stop.

"… _Oh, Mephy… C'mon now… C'mon… I won't bite… I won't… much…_" At the last word, Dark smirked even wider, baring his teeth at Mephiles, who froze. Dark's voice was eerie now… something about it was making Mephiles shiver. Dark was beginning to sound more like a crazed person.

"Dark, stop it. You're losing control again." Mephiles tried to warn him.

"… _Oh, but I have not…_" Dark snorted, giggling once he paused. "_… I have not… For you see… it was never there to begin with… never there at all… Never!_"

With that, he turned his attention to the couch and brushed his tongue against his teeth, a low growl rolling off his tongue.

"Dark... don't do it…" Mephiles realized that since that was a piece of his mind… it Dark damaged it, Mephiles would be the one paying for the consequences. "Dark… I'm _warning_ you…"

Dark ignored the warning and took off after it, slamming his entire body weight into it and causing the couch to rock slightly as he moved back a little and lunged at it again, arms out wide as he tried to flip it over..

Mephiles yelped and ran back over to the area, unsure of how to counter this.

Dark raised a clawed hand, and Mephiles reacted in the only way he could think of at the moment as he saw the claws gleam for a second.

He grabbed Dark by catching him from behind and pulled him away from the couch, pinning him to the ground by grabbing both his arms and holding them to his back.

Dark hadn't expected this and thrashed against Mephiles' restraint, hissing and yowling like a cat as he spat out curses and profanities that made Mephiles fold his ears over to block out the bad words.

"I learned that one from Shadow…" Mephiles frowned and made it to where he could hold both arms with one hand and scruffed Dark, putting his foot against his back to try to keep him from injuring the both of them. "The scruffing I learned from you, and I learned the foot trick from you as well…"

At the moment of scuffing, Dark's limbs and body went limp, but he still growled dangerously to show that he disliked this.

"I don't dare… you almost hurt me…" Mephiles shot at him. "And what's even worse… you got mad over a silly notebook! Grow up!"

"… _I'm younger than you…_"

"Not by much… if I was just a hoglet then… there's hardly much age differences between us…" Mephiles rolled his eyes. "Next time you try to pull that, I'm getting you a muzzle or something… perhaps a straightjacket to compliment your insanity, and maybe throw in the rest of the package and make you your own replication of Hannibal Lector?"

He waited for an answer… but there was silence.

"Dark?" Mephiles unscruffed him, the demon not moving.

Mephiles then let go of his arms, took his foot off his back and got off him, getting a little worried.

Then he almost kicked himself out of stupidity.

Dark had fainted.

"Of course… he mentioned that happening after rage fits…" Mephiles facepalmed. "God, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder with him…"

Instead of leaving him laying face down, as he was so tempted to do, Mephiles rolled him over and braced him under the arms to lift him up and drag him to the couch.

Once he was set down, Dark started to come to, and opened his eyes, which had stopped glowing, slowly and was almost stoic behind them.

"Dark?" Mephiles tried to get him to say something. "Hey, Dark… do you know what just happened to you?"

"_... No… Not really…_"

"Do the words 'rage fit' strike anything in your mind? Like... at all?"

"… _Don't tell me…_" Dark cringed a little. "_… I lost it again..?_"

"That's putting it lightly…" Mephiles sighed. "You wanted to attack me and when I got too far from you, you went after the couch… I stopped you before you could damage it…"

"… _Well if the notebook just worked like it should…_" Dark folded his arms.

"Maybe that's a sign that you don't have the answer to everything…"

"… _I'm never wrong…_"

"But your way of thinking can be so wrong!" Mephiles snapped. "You think that you know everything about something just because you've been around it long enough! You'll justify everything you do with something as simple as a 'because I can…" or something! In fact… you never did tell me _why_ you wanted to kill _me_ to begin with! But you sure let Shadow know why you wanted him dead!"

"… _That's just the way things are…_" Dark looked up. "_… Because I took on the traits of your darkest thoughts and habits, I was shaped like that. I could not be like you, because that would create an imbalance between the two personalities. As for why I wanted to kill you… you should know by now…_"

"And that is..?"

"… _There can only be one of us in the end. Because my time with you in the Scepter made me a doppelganger, it is in the nature of one to try to off the other…_" Dark explained. "_… In a sense… I have no choice…_"

"Then are you doing that because you want to…" Mephiles said. "Or because you think you have to?"

Silence.

Big awkward silence.

"_Shouldn't you be waking up now?_" Dark frowned. "_You've been here for a good half an hour… Shadow and that-_Rouge _should be worried about you…_" Dark almost called Rouge "That Bat" again, but Mephiles shot a glare at him.

"I suppose…" Mephiles said slowly. "Just don't do anything rash while I'm gone…"

"_Mephiles… I'm in an endless void… what do you _expect_ me to do? Seriously?_"

"I honestly don't know… but it seems like it could be bad…" The good hedgehog shook his head. "Just try to let me now if something is out of place…"

"_I'll try…_"

"So… Um… I need you to knock me out…" Mephiles' face darkened a shade of red at the absurd request.

"_If you put a door in here… I wouldn't have to…_" The demon rolled his eyes.

"If you got to bash something once into my head… I'm sure it'll make you feel better…" Mephiles wasn't sure why he was offering this, knowing that he was going to most likely have a terrible headache from that. Perhaps he was trying to get Dark to act as close to normal as possible. "C'mon… y'know you want to…"

"_Do it yourself…_"

Mephiles sighed, walked over to the couch, rested his hands on the armrest and slammed his head into it.

Mephiles could have sworn he heard birds chirping...

* * *

Immediately, his eyes snapped open. Then his hands flew to his head.

"… That was a bad idea…" He groaned.

"What?" He heard Shadow's voice.

"I slammed my head into the couch because Dark didn't want to hit me…" It took Mephiles a second to realize how absurd that sounded. "I mean, in my head… I had to knock myself out to get out of there…"

"Why not use the door?" Shadow frowned.

"I don't have doors 'installed', Shadow…" Mephiles sat up carefully, realizing he was in another room, which he could tell by the lack of destruction around him. "I already know… I fainted… huh?" He coughed a bit, still recovering from his cold now.

"Either that or you fell asleep…" Rouge said. "Either way, you were _out…_"

"I'm guessing you visited Dark…" Shadow inquired. "Anything new to tell us?"

"His notebook isn't working…"

The bat and the hedgehog blinked.

"Oh…" Mephiles sweatdropped. "Right… I haven't told you about his notebook yet…"

"Dark has a notebook? What kind of notebook?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Does it do things to the people he's written their names in?"

"No… It's a notebook that records his thoughts into a more understandable form…" Mephiles shook his head as he explained. "It writes itself, but right now, it's blank. He had a rage fit over that, and was almost out of control. I had to restrain him…"

"Some things never change, I suppose…" Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Actually, he was on pretty good behavior until he got mad… he's cooled down a bit though…" Mephiles said, almost smiling at that. "Anyway… So, when can we get back on our little quest for the Emeralds?"

"As soon as they let you out of here…" Rouge said. "They think you should stay another day, but Shadow and I asked for sooner. They're checking everything out to see if it's worth it."

"Well, I'm up, I'm not cold anymore, I'm alive, and I feel perfectly fine…" Mephiles folded his arms. "Can't we go then? I like our hospital better…"

"You hate hospitals…"

"Yes… but I'd rather be at ours. I know the people there…"

"We can't go until they decide to let you out."

"And how do I convince them to do that?" Mephiles snuffled, having found to his dislike that his nose was running.

"For starters…" Shadow said. "Don't draw attention to yourself. They're already baffled that you survived that long in ice, considering that most other peoples would have died from just the fall."

"I think we know by now that I'm going to end up defying odds…" Mephiles crossed his arms. "But I can't stay here if we only have three Emeralds."

"We understand that. But unfortunately, the hospital begs to differ."

"I don't care. We need to get to those Emeralds before Iblis."

"Another thing, Meph…" Shadow folded his arms. "Are you sure you should be having any contact with them? That aqua one nearly got you killed."

"Well, the red one hurts me, and the aqua one tricks my brain…" Mephiles said, wiping his nose on the back of his hand. "And I'm pretty sure that the yellow one lets me expand on my psychic ability… so I'm sure that not all the Emeralds react badly with me."

"Next time, you should give it to us if something seems amiss." Rouge suggested.

"I'll keep that in mind…" Mephiles nodded.

"You'd better."

* * *

By the next day, Mephiles was allowed to leave, the statement of that prompting him to shout his relief at the top of his voice, sounding like this: "THANK GOD!"

Mephiles' bruise from Iblis' first attack was now nearly gone, and a thin layer of fur where the former layers had been scorched were starting to grow back, a process that Mephiles always found to be itchy, and to add to his frustration, he had to scratch at it with his knuckles, knowing that his claws would just tear up his skin.

"I hate these claws! I hate them!" He whined, now rubbing the balded spots with his palm. "I can't really scratch myself without bleeding, and they can screw up anything if I'm not careful!"

"On the plus side…" Shadow tried to show an optimistic side to this as they walked down the street in Station Square. "It's your defense that always at hand…"

Mephiles stopped and narrowed his eyes, Shadow laughing nervously at the unintentional play on words.

"Bad pun, Shadow. Very. Very. Bad. Pun."

"Sorry… but it's a good point…"

"Yes… but I wish my hands were more like yours and Rouge's. I can't imagine how my hands feel when I put them on your shoulder or something like that."

"I'll admit that it's different." Rouge said. "But it's also harder to get hurt there."

"It's weird to describe it…" Mephiles said slowly, pressing his thumb down on the other palm, the area caving in like a normal palm would. "But my hands seem to work like anyone else's… but there's just an unbreakable layer of crystals there that have nerves and feelings… but according to science… that's impossible."

"A Chaos Emerald made you like this… It's possible for you because of that…"

"But… what if I didn't have these crystals? What if it was just normal flesh, skin and fur where I have them?" Mephiles was starting to muse. "What if I was… normal?"

"Then you wouldn't be you…" Shadow said. "Then you wouldn't be the guy that has become my friend for all the reasons that make you different."

"I suppose… but… I must wonder what it's like to be about as normal as you or Rouge…"

"Meph… _I'm_ not normal either." Shadow rolled his eyes. "I'm half alien, and I'm practically ageless. I have a greater range of Chaos based abilities because of my blood than most other people."

"True… but you don't look at all like how I do. I'm crystally and my eyes are red where it should be white."

"And that's not at all weird to us…" Rouge said with a small smile. "We like you no matter what. Even if you aren't even a real Mobian."

Mephiles gave a short laugh with a grin.

"Thanks." His muzzle was getting pink around the cheeks. "So… Knowing how we've met up with Iblis twice, it seems like he's staying close by, so we might have a bit of time to kill before we go after the next Emerald."

"Perhaps." Rouge nodded. "What do you have in mind?"

"I dunno… I've never been here before…"

"I see… ever been to an amusement park before?" Rouge gave a grin that meant that she had something planned.

"A what?"

"It's a place where people pay to have fun…" Shadow explained, shifting his gaze to the right of Mephiles, who was oblivious to the park entrance.

Mephiles blinked and looked in Shadow's line of vision, reading the sign.

"'Twinkle Park?'"

* * *

Next Chapter: Mephiles gets to enjoy the fun of bumper cars and such, taking a quick break from this stressing task of his ^^


	16. Cotton Candy

Alrighty then, I can't assure you that there isn't any angst in this chapter, since I needed more space... but Mephiles does get to have fun for a while.

Hope you enjoy this chapter. ^^

* * *

After an entrance made of bright colors and flashing lights, enough to throw anyone into an epileptic seizure, the trio made their way into the park.

A large castle like structure was quite a distance away, but Mephiles had no doubt that it was part of the park.

Almost immediately after entering, Mephiles jumped back with a yelp, having seen a large body of water where numerous kids were playing in.

"WHO'S IDEA OF AMUSEMENT IS _THAT?!_" Mephiles shouted, not at all liking the idea of a pool being there.

"Meph, believe it or not…" Shadow said. "People actually swim for fun."

"I don't see why. It's kinda dangerous isn't it? And with all those kids, are you sure there is enough people to watch them?" Mephiles was eyeing the seemingly short supply of lifeguards, which had a number of five.

"Of course…" Shadow rolled his eyes. "Y'know… someday, you'll have to learn how to swim…"

"Not if I can help it…" Mephiles crossed his arms and blew a raspberry.

"Anyway…" Rouge said. "What do you want to do first?"

"Why ask me? I don't even know the place…"

"Let's work in a spiral…" Shadow suggested, snatching a map of the park from the kiosk. "There's a mirror house nearby, then bumper cars, several other rides and an aquarium…"

"Aquarium? As in water and fish?" Mephiles frowned slowly. "What part of 'I don't like water' isn't clear to you?"

"You won't be touching the water…" Shadow rolled his eyes again. "Seriously, stop being so serious all the time. This place is supposed to be fun, so try to lighten up…"

"I'll try… but only if I like it…" Mephiles sighed. "Let's try that mirror place…"

Mephiles found it to be quite confusing. Having to hold his arms out to make sure he didn't walk into a window, Mephiles soon realized that this was a maze, and he was now stuck in the middle as he tried to feel his way out.

_This is something that might even make Dark confused! I bet even he's not smart enough to get though this faster than I can!_

'_I heard that…'_

_Sorry Dark…_

Looking up, Mephiles realized that Shadow was already at least six feet distance away him.

Then Mephiles collided with a clear window, screaming out a few curses as he clapped his hands to his nose. Nearby, a purple chameleon and a green crocodile clapped their hands over a young bee's supposed ears (hard to tell, he was wearing a helmet of some kind), who was giggling uncontrollably.

"Who designed this thing?!" Mephiles howled. "It's confusing!"

"Try looking at the floor to look for mirrors and window edges!" Shadow shouted, having already mad it to the end with Rouge.

Mephiles pinched his nose as he followed his advice and found his way out.

"I can't tell… is by dose bleedink?" Mephiles said thickly, his blocked nose impairing his ability to speak clearly at the moment.

"No… it must be sore though…" Shadow said. "I saw you hit that window head out. If it wasn't made of clear plastic, it might have shattered…"

"Hooray for me…" Mephiles unpinched his nose and prodded it gently, wincing. "Oww… Other than that, that was pretty challenging…"

"I'm guessing you didn't like that?"

"Not one bit…" Mephiles folded his arms and narrowed his eyes, before smirking. "Now you gotta make it up to me…Next place better be good…"

Mephiles laughed a bit, telling them that he was joking a bit.

"Okay, alright…" Shadow pulled out the map. "Rouge, your turn to pick…"

"Well, bumper cars are really close, let's try that…"

"What are those anyway?" Mephiles changed his expression to curiosity.

"It's carts that are on an electrified track that you crash into other carts…"

At the word "electrified", Mephiles' eyes widened and his fur stood up starting from his head to this feet and tail.

"I-is that safe?" Mephiles didn't like the idea of being in an area with electricity surging anywhere. One didn't blame him. He had been electrocuted before, and that was by Dr. Eggman, who used it to force him to be obedient in his demands. Mephiles didn't like that because it was not only amplified by the water, but it was used in the form of a collar, which was a degrading as it was painful.

"Perfectly safe." Shadow assured him. "It wouldn't be here if it wasn't…" Mephiles still looked a bit unnerved, so he added: "We don't have to if you don't want to…"

"No point in letting me ruin it…" Mephiles muttered, staring at the ground. "If you say its safe… then, I guess its okay…"

"We don't have to if you don't want to…" Shadow repeated.

"It's okay…" Mephiles shook his head before forcing a grin. "I can't be scared of something all the time, and like you said… I'm supposed to be having fun here."

"I just don't want you to think we're forcing you or something…"

After about another five minutes of this, it was quite clear that Mephiles had made up his mind that he was going to try it out, regardless of what his instincts about electricity was telling him to do. His mind and heart were telling him to just have fun and enjoy himself, while his gut feeling and instincts were being uncooperative, and telling him to run like heck in the opposite direction.

For once… Mephiles decided to ignore his gut feeling.

However, he was starting to have second thoughts once they had their cars.

"Well… at least the car's a nice color…" Mephiles glanced at the hood of his car, which was a light shade of blue, but to his dislike, the number thirteen was painted on it as well. "Well, I don't think that could really _mean_ anything…" He muttered, narrowing his eyes as he glanced at Shadow and Rouge, each of them in a black and a dark pink car respectively. "How do I work it?" He called to them.

"Use the wheel to steer, the right pedal to move forward and the left pedal to go back."

"That's easy to remember…" Mephiles triple checked the seat belt himself, not sure if the ride supervisor had done a very good job, and didn't want to take a chance. Mephiles pushed the right pedal and yelped when the car moved.

"It's supposed to do that…" He heard Shadow say.

"Wha-AAH!" Mephiles cut himself off with his own scream, having been crashed into by someone. He looked up and saw, luck would seem to have it, the bee kid from earlier.

"C'mon, you're not going to have any fun just sitting there!" He laughed.

Mephiles sighed, looking up cautiously at the metal ceiling, watching a few sparks shoot off when the thing that powered the car touched it.

"I suppose…" He sighed, and then tried to back up, only to bump his car into another person's. "S-sorry…"

"Meph! You're supposed to do that! Stop apologizing!"

"S-sorry…" Mephiles took a deep breath and this time, pushed the right pedal carefully and turned the wheel to the left, narrowly missing getting hit again. "Well, that was kinda cool…" Mephiles half laughed.

"If you push the pedal down harder…" The bee offered. "You can go a bit faster!"

Mephiles tried that, and before long, he got the hang of it, his mood quickly changing from apprehensive to excitement. He was really enjoying this!

Then, after what felt like not enough time, they had to get off to let other people on.

"Aw… I was really liking that…" Mephiles whined.

"I could tell…" Shadow said. "You crashed into me more times than anyone…"

"Well, if you didn't sit still…"

"My car was faulty…"

"Excuses, Shadow…" Mephiles folded his arms and grinned. "Admit… I'm better at bumper cars than you…"

"Wanna bet on that?"

"Okay… next time we go on, the one who's bumped into the least amount of bumps into the least amount of people…" Mephiles said slowly as he thought about the wager. "Gets to… _has _to… buy the other one something from the snack cart."

"Okay… deal…" Shadow agreed, shaking hand to seal it. "We'll have to do it later. The line is a bit long."

"Okay… besides… I wanna see what other things are here."

"Alright… Meph? Meph?" Shadow and Rouge looked up to see that Mephiles had seemingly disappeared, only for them to find him at the snack stand, hands and face pressed against the glass as he watched the owner of the stand dump colored sugar into a spinning bowl. Mephiles' eyes widened in amusement when he saw the sugar become soft and fluffy looking, almost like cotton, as the puffy stuff was swirled in a stick.

"Wow…"

"Don't run off like that!" Rouge scolded him, Mephiles cringing a bit at being yelled at. "This place is too big for that… you could be lost for hours…"

"What's this stuff?" Mephiles seemingly ignored her and pointed to the light blue large puff ball. "I can see it's made out of sugar… but I don't see how it does that. It's only sugar… so it shouldn't look like that… Even Dark doesn't know what it is…"

Shadow couldn't help but laugh at him.

"What?" Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry… but you ask about the simplest things sometimes…" Shadow apologized. "That's cotton candy. Its spun sugar and it's quite interesting…"

"Well… I _do_ like sugar…" Mephiles turned his attention back to it. "So, that's all it is? It must be really sweet then…"

Rouge handed the snack stand owner three Rings.

"We'll take three of those…"

Within minutes, Mephiles was holding a blue stick of Fluff, scanning his eyes up and down it, wondering where to start.

"Just pick a spot…" Shadow said as he tore off a piece of his and popped the piece into his mouth as they made their way to the next place.

Mephiles shrugged and bit down somewhere in the middle.

His eyes went wide.

A grin crept on his face.

His tail swept from side to side.

He pulled the stack away, pressing his tongue against the piece in his mouth, which was melting away at an alarming pace, but not without leaving a sweet aftertaste behind. Glancing at the cotton candy on the stick, he could see that the spit from his mouth was causing the area touching it to melt and become sticky gobs of sugar…

It was perhaps the most wonderful thing he had ever tasted! He felt like he could float above the ground in pure ecstasy!

"Ah… Meph?" He heard Shadow's voice break through his fantasy. "Uh… you're hovering…"

"Huh?" Mephiles snapped out of his daydream and found that he had flared up his powers slightly and the purple Aura was letting his feet hang several inches from the ground. A shade of pink spread across his face as he dispersed the mist and let himself touch down. "Heh… I keep forgetting that I can do that… I just don't use it often…"

"I take it that you like the cotton candy?" Rouge giggled.

"Oh, yes… of course!" Mephiles nodded excitedly. "I had no idea that pure sugar could be made into a treat of just that!"

"Theme park food has some pretty interesting things…" She explained with a smirk. "So, where do you want to go to next?"

"After consuming this stick of pure sugar…" Mephiles said. "I feel like I could take on anything!"

"How about a rollercoaster?"

"What's that?"

In a few minutes, Mephiles learned what just it was. Somehow, the concept of sitting in a cart that was to be doing gravity defying flips didn't sound too great to him.

And the screaming wasn't helping…

At all…

He looked up wearily, then back at Shadow and Rouge.

"I dunno about this, guys..."

"We don't have to if you don't want to…"

Mephiles was about to agree, until the little bee kid was spotted on the ride, having a great time with the crocodile that also seemed to enjoy this just as much. The purple chameleon didn't seem to have changed his expression since they were last spotted.

_No doubt he's younger than me…_ Mephiles frowned to himself. _Is he following me? Huh, if he can get on this ride… there should be no reason I can't…_

'_Mephiles… perhaps that's not a good idea…_' Dark warned. '_You get motion sickness fairly easily, and you just ate a bunch of sugar…_'

_I'll manage… it's just a ride. It's not like it goes on for hours…_

'_Have it your way…_' Dark growled. '_But if you need to vomit, don't embarrass yourself… there are trashcans at the exit…_'

Mephiles glanced at the exit and saw that Dark was right.

_Wonder if anyone else has barfed in there…_

'_I dare not think about it…_' Dark said with hint of a groan, as if the thought had sickened him. '_But don't say you weren't warned… If I get sick from this, I'm not going to be happy… and you don't like me when I'm like that…_'

"No, I'll try it…" Mephiles said, trailing his eyes along the track. "It might be fun…"

Mephiles wasn't sure what to think while he was on the ride, assuming that he _could_ think at all, clutching his hands to the safety bar tightly as he tried to find something in his line of vision that was steady enough to focus on, but he could see nothing that would work.

Dark was scolding him as his mind swam as they made the loop, Mephiles feeling his sugary snack from earlier threaten to come back up, which he swallowed back with a gulp, closing his eyes to block the dizzying blur that met his vision.

But, regardless of that, Mephiles somewhat enjoyed this. He joined in with the screams, finding that this wasn't so bad…

After the ride had ended, Mephiles stumbled dizzily to the trashcan to be violently sick, having finally felt the effects of his motion sickness from the ride.

"You okay, Mephiles?" Rouge asked, receiving a slow nod of the head, the hedgehog pulled his head out of the trashcan, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned weakly, giving her a thumbs-up.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine…" He said with a bit of a stutter before clearing his throat and backing away with a deep breath. Then he spoke a bit more clearly: "That was kinda fun… except for the 'me-throwing-up' part at the end…"

"Willing to try it again?"

"Not a chance…" Mephiles laughed, pulling a face of disgust. "Is there a water fountain nearby? The inside of my mouth tastes gross…"

"Over there…" Shadow pointed to the restrooms, where a water fountain was. Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out toothpaste and a blue toothbrush that was in a plastic baggie to avoid being contaminated. "Might be wiser to just scrub your mouth in the bathroom."

Mephiles, being grateful that they had made sure to pack their essentials, nodded and hurried to the restroom after grabbing the toothbrush and toothpaste. One of the last thing Mephiles wanted was for his perfect, well kept teeth to have a reason to start rotting, and vomit was something that could jump start that.

To his relief, the restrooms were empty, so he'd be saved the embarrassment of someone watching him.

Making sure to get every inch, Mephiles mouth was filled with minty foam after a few scrubs; Mephiles counting each second to make sure the right amount of time was done.

Teeth. Tongue. Roof of mouth. Gums. That seemed about right.

'_You wouldn't have to be doing that if you stayed away from the ride in the first place…_'

_Oh, shut up… I had fun…_

Dark growled again and stayed silent.

Mephiles spat out the off-white foam into the sink, running the water so it was rinsed down the sink.

"Hate to think what would happen if my teeth weren't being taken care of…" Mephiles shuddered at the thought.

He rinsed off the toothbrush and bagged it before he left to rejoin Shadow and Rouge.

"I feel better..." He declared. "Let's see what else is here."

The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out the park, Mephiles enjoying every bit of it, and ending finally, with the bumper cars bet.

Neither could decide who won, so a compromise was made, and the two paid for each other… using Rouge's Rings. Mephiles had cotton candy, and Shadow chose nachos.

After Mephiles took the first bite of his snack, his nose twitched as a strange, bitter scent that carried a metallic undertone reached his nose. He frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"Something seems off…" Mephiles muttered, blinking before finding his vision to be getting fuzzy, much to his unease as a spell of vertigo shoved itself upon him. "… Sh-shadow..? R-rouge..? H-help…"

Then everything went black.

* * *

Mephiles woke up to find himself lying on a bed, knowing immediately that he was taken back to the hospital, as much as he hated it.

Nursing his aching head, which he was cradling carefully in his hands as he sat up with difficulty, he grunted in some form of pain as he tried to put two and two together.

He got nothing.

His head still hurting, he contemplated to see if it was a good idea to lie back down or not. He figured he should… the pillow was quite comfortable…

"Oh, Mephiles! You're okay!" He heard Rouge's voice sound of, causing him to wince in pain.

"… Loud voices… don't help…" He murmured, lifting his eyes to look up at her. "… What happened..?"

"You've been out for a few hours…" She explained, looking troubled. "Apparently, that cotton candy was laced with Lemon Sundrop Dandelion…"

"… I have no idea what that is…"

"You were poisoned…"

"… You could have said that first…" Mephiles muttered, not daring to shake his head. "… I had a feeling that something was wrong with it… I caught a whiff of the stuff on it…"

"That's not possible…" Rouge shook her head. "Lemon Sundrop Dandelion is odorless…"

"… Something smelled like bitter metal… and it was making me dizzy before I even swallowed that piece…" Mephiles explained, clenching his hands tightly around his head. "… Where's Shadow..?"

Rouge didn't answer, so Mephiles asked again in a more demanding tone.

"Where. Is. Shadow?"

"Mephiles…" Rouge began explaining, and right away, Mephiles could tell that this wasn't going to be good. "… Shadow… well… you weren't the only one poisoned…"

"Come again..?" Mephiles was sure he wasn't going to like what was going to be said. "Rouge..?"

"Shadow was hit with a heavier dosage…" Rouge flattened her ears, tears starting to pool up in her eyes. "H-he's in intensive care right now…"

"What!? No!" Mephiles shouted, forgetting that he was still feeling a bit weak as he jumped to his feet and stumbled to the door right before Rouge caught him and pulled him back to his bed, wrapping her arms around him to keep him from flailing his arms, though he tried to pull away anyway. "Let me go! I have to go see him! This is all my fault! ROUGE!"

"Mephiles! We can't do anything right now! They won't let anyone in to see him, trust me, I've tried already! It's not your fault! It's not!"

Mephiles stopped trying to pull free when he heard the tone in her voice. Something was different than what he was used to.

He felt Rouge's body shudder and something wet splashed on his ear, causing it to flicker. Then it occurred to him…

Rouge was crying!

This greatly saddened Mephiles. For as long as he's known her, he could only once think of a time when she had broken down. Only once… when she thought that she had really lost Shadow.

She was always the stronger one emotionally, and was always the levelheaded one when Shadow and him couldn't think straight. Rouge was the last one he'd expect to shed a tear…

But, here he was, watching it happen before his very eyes, which grew wide in astonishment.

Rouge's grip around him loosened, which gave him room to move, allowing him to wrap his arms around her more securely.

"When they said the both of you were poisoned…" She tried to say clearly, but her occasional inhale for air obscured it. "I-I was afraid that I'd lose Shadow and you both all at once…"

Mephiles couldn't blame her for being upset. The thought of losing both her and Shadow was something that constantly worried him as well.

"It's going to be okay, I'm sure of it…" He tried to reassure her as well as himself. "I'm okay, and I'm certain that Shadow will pull through as well…"

"I'm sorry… it must be weird seeing me like this…"

"I'll admit it's different…" Mephiles tried to force a smile to keep her from getting upset any more than she already was. "But, right now… if anybody has the right to cry… it should be you. All the times that Shadow and I have nearly been killed… all those times I've lashed out and nearly hurt you... and you spent all your effort into keeping him and I calm… you've more than earned it…"

"Don't tell Shadow about this…"

"I won't…" He half laughed before trying to get a hold of Dark. He didn't answer.

This worried Mephiles, and he tried again, hearing a weak groan sound off.

_Dark? What's wrong?_

'… _M-mephy..? Is that you..?_'

_Who could you possibly think it is if this is my head?_

'_I-I'm s-sorry… I c-can't think straight…_'

_Why not? _Mephiles was a bit worried. Dark didn't sound well at all.

'_I-I absorbed s-some of at that p-poison to g-get you to wake up…_'

_Dark, you idiot! How could you do that! You'll get sick from that!_

'… _M-mephy..? Is th-that you..? I can't s-see you…_'

_That's because I'm not there!_

'_I don't feel good…_'

Dark moaned and Mephiles lost track of him.

He cursed under his breath, catching Rouge's attention.

"What's wrong?" She asked, wiping a few tears from her eyes.

"Dark's gotten himself ill." Mephiles explained. "The reason I recovered so quickly is because he took the poison from me. I need to go check on him… But I don't know how to treat poisoning…"

Rouge quickly explained what the doctors had to do for Mephiles, hoping that would help.

"I'll try to remember that…" He nodded. "Thank you…"

Then he closed his eyes, letting himself fall asleep again, an easy task, since he was already tired.

* * *

It didn't take him long to find Dark, who was sitting on the ground next to the couch, holding an airsickness bag to his mouth as he heaved dryly into it, having nothing to vomit up. Next to him, folded at the tops, were what Mephiles assumed were three already used bags, which surprised him, because he didn't even think _he _was able to throw up that much.

Taking a look at Dark, he could see that the demon looked as sick as he had ever seen him. His quills hung limply, his fur had lost its sheen, and his pale muzzle was a touch away from being white. Sweat was beating up on his face as well, and he was shaking like a leaf.

"You poor thing…" Mephiles half stated, half sympathized with him, making his way over to Dark to start helping him.

"_Wh-what are _you_ doing here?_" Dark growled, tossing the empty bag aside.

"This is my brain… I can be here if I like…" Mephiles reminded him, catching him by the arm and pulling him up onto the couch, Dark fighting against his help. "Stop fighting, I'm doing this to help you…"

"_I-I don't need help…_" Dark growled weakly, showing off his teeth in a feeble attempt to look fierce.

"You do right now…" Mephiles said swiftly, pulling the blanket over him then focusing hard to think up what he needed.

A small vial and a hypodermic needle appeared in his hands, Mephiles relieved that that worked, while Dark eyed him with mild curiosity.

"_What's that..?_"

"An antitoxin. It's supposed to neutralize the poison in your bloodstream."

"_I won't d-die from the poison… I'm j-just going to be sick for a while…_" Dark told him, letting his eyes trail along the length of the needle. "_What are you going to do with that?_"

"Clear out the poison."

"_I know that… but how..?_"

"I'm going to inject it…" Mephiles said, narrowing his eyes a bit when he felt uneasy about holding the needle in his hands. "It's the only way to cure you quickly and safely…"

Dark growled again as Mephiles held his arm down and injected it where he was sure to have hit a vein. Dark waited until the needle was out of his arm and jerked said arm out of Mephiles' grasp.

"_It's not working…_" Dark muttered.

"Give it time… it needs to spread…" Mephiles capped the needle and focused on getting rid of it, not wanting Dark to mess with it if he got sick again and started acting weird. "Now, I just need to get out of here…"

"_Allow me…_"

"Oh, thanks Dar-"

**WHUMP!**

Mephiles hit the ground, unconscious before he disappeared from sight, Dark curling his fingers into a lightly held fist.

"That_ felt good…_" He muttered before flopping back onto the couch and pulling the blanket over his head.

* * *

I dunno... I kind thought that last part was funny.

Anyway... I orignally intended for just Shadow to be poisoned, but I didn't want to think up the process of how it happened, so Mephiles fainting causes a great time jump moment when I really needed it. ^^

If you notice, a good point was brought up. Rouge has only fully cried once in the series before now. Mephiles is the usual choice, and Shadow has had his fair share... so using Rouge gives the proper feel to the situation and really illustrates just how bad things got. And this time, it's Mephiles turn to comfort her after aall the times she's done that for him. ^^

And the part with Dark was really not planned, but I needed more words, so I whipped up this scene just to spark a somewhat humorus chapter ending, so Dark was being sarcastic ^^

Next chapter we'll see how Shadow pulls through. ^^

Oh, and Lemon Sundrop Dandelion is something I borrowed from a Knuckles the Echidna comic storyline, which spanned issues #13-#15... but I dunno if you all have read it. I have issue #13...


	17. Mephiles Stands Up

Continuing on! This is going to be an interesting chapter ^^  


* * *

Mephiles had reawakened to find himself having been set back down on the bed, a light blanket was draped over him.

Sitting up carefully, he was pleased to find that his headache had gone away a good degree, so he wasn't hindered at all in his thinking.

However, he remembered why he was there in the first place in a snap, and he got off the bed to find Rouge, who had momentarily disappeared from his sight. Then he realized that she had wrapped her wings around herself loosely as she sat on the other bed, forming a dark cocoon that had not caught Mephiles' eye at first because he was looking for her white fur.

Making his way over to her, he carefully pried the wings apart with one hand, her looking up at him as he smiled lightly.

"You don't have to hide…" He told her. "That's my job…"

She laughed lightly and gave him a push with her hand.

"Oh, you…"

"At least I got you to feel better…" He told her as he took a seat next to her, sitting a bit close to push her wing behind him so she couldn't wrap it around her again. "Any word on Shadow?"

"They said he was starting to recover, but they don't expect him to wake up in the next couple of days…"

Mephiles cursed.

"This is all my fault… I'm sure it was Iblis who did this, and I know that it was meant for me…"

"How would Iblis have managed to do that without being caught?" Rouge said, looking at him. "I'm sure someone was bound to have noticed."

"I honestly don't know…" Mephiles shook his head slowly. "If Dark is capable of tricking me without me noticing… then Iblis should have no problem with this. Do you know when we're allowed to see Shadow?"

"I don't know. But if we could right now, we can't really do anything…"

"I don't care." Mephiles folded his arms. "We're his closest friends. We should have every right to see him…"

"They have protocols they need to follow before that can happen though…"

"You got to see me just fine…"

"That's because you only ingested a little of it…"

Mephiles heaved a sigh through his teeth and brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them as he rested his head on them as well.

"Well this sucks…" He whispered. "My best friend is sick and I can't see him…"

The both of them waited a couple of hours until they were given word that they could go see Shadow.

No sooner had the room number left the tongue of the informer had Mephiles jumped up and disappeared form the room, Rouge having only time to blink when she realized he was gone.

Flapping her wings, Rouge got herself a few feet off the floor, making sure to say "thank you" before taking off after him, taking care as to not run into people and personnel.

Mephiles was standing outside the room, hands pressed against the glass as he peered inside, eyes widening slowly.

However mature Mephiles had been for Rouge a couple of hours ago… it all seemed to melt off of him to reveal what he really was right now: Eleven years old, standing outside of a hospital room, watching his best friend recover ever so slowly…

His ears flattened as he leaned forward to rest his head on the glass, his breath fogging it up.

"Aren't you going to go in?" The bat asked as she touched down next to him.

Mephiles jumped a bit, having not seen her, and looked up.

"Huh? Oh… right… y-yeah… of course…" Mephiles wasn't really sure if he should now. He could see Shadow through the window, ad he could see that he had been and was being tended to…

But what would his presence do? If Shadow was not awake, what good could he do him for being there? It wasn't like Mephiles could be able to help him anymore than Rouge could. And he was certain that his healing powers only applied to actual physical injuries, so that was a no-go either.

He was useless…

That thought stung Mephiles. It settled in his gut like a lump of cold lead, upsetting his stomach as well as his heart.

…

…

Useless.

…

…

…

Downright useless.

…

…

…

"Mephiles?"

"Huh?" Mephiles hadn't realized that he trailed off in his thoughts again. He looked at her again, blinking.

"You kinda zoned out right there…" Rouge was eyeing him with concern.

"Just thinking…" He said in a scattered tone, as if he wasn't really thinking at all, and simply had that ready as a response. "… This is how it was last month, isn't it?"

"What?"

"… When I was in the hospital, fighting off Dark…" Mephiles looked up again with a saddened expression. "… All you and Shadow could do was watch, because you couldn't really help me…"

"… More or less…" Rouge responded slowly, instantly recognizing Mephiles' expression as borderline depression.

Mephiles sighed heavily, his body shuddering with that deep breath. Then he rested his head against the glass again.

"… I can't do anything right…" He whispered, startling Rouge with that comment.

"Don't say that. Sure you can!"

"… Name something that's actually important…" He muttered, letting his hands fall to his side.

"You got rid of Dark last time…"

"… Only because I died of a heart attack…"

"You got us to realize that Dark was back at the time…"

"… And it only took me going insane and jumping off a bridge to get Shadow to realize that…"

"You raised two really nice Chaos from an egg…"

"… I got the egg because I had a mental breakdown in the first place… and I was in a coma when they hatched…"

"You're not making this any easier…"

"… Add that to the list as well…"

"I didn't mean it like that!"

"… Please… Just stop right now…" Mephiles pushed himself from the window and walked to the door, pulling it open. "… I really don't feel like talking…"

Rouge followed after him, seeing that he had claimed a chair next to Shadow, sitting down with his arms folded, head bowed and eyes closed.

"Mephiles..?"

He didn't answer, but twitched an ear all the same to let her know he heard her.

A few minutes of silence, and his tense body relaxed, his breathing pattern switching to that one sleeping.

Mephiles asleep again…

* * *

The crystal hedgehog was growing tired of this.

"Why do I end up here more often?" He wondered aloud.

"_I didn't expect you back for a while…_" Dark opened an eye as he pulled the blanket off of his head to look at a rather annoyed Mephiles. "_You ought to get yourself tested for narcolepsy…_"

"I don't have a sleeping problem, Dark!" Mephiles snapped at him, causing Dark to open both eyes in surprise. "And I'm not in the mood for one of your metaphors, so you can just shut it!"

Dark blinked.

"_Well… _some_one is having a bad day…_"

"I am, thank you very much!" Mephiles huffed at him. "And it's all because of you!"

"_Wait… _Me?" Dark frowned, getting off of the couch to step behind it so that something was in between him and Mephiles, who looked about ready to attack him. "_Just what the heck did I do? I'm not the one trying to kill you right now!_"

"If you hadn't tried to make that deal with Iblis, none of this would have happened!" Mephiles pointed at him accusingly. "If you hate him, what made you think it was a good idea to try to team up with him!?"

"_Wha-huh-well excuse me!_" Dark countered. "_That's for me to know and you to not!_"

"If you expect me to help you out, I'm going to need to know just why you started this!" Mephiles barked. "Shadow has been poisoned. I _demand_ answers!"

"_And what makes you think I know why!?_"

"Oh, _c'mon!_" Mephiles clenched his hands. "Because you know everything! That's what you said, Dark! Everything! So why don't you get your notebook and find the answers for me, since you don't seem to want to tell me at all!"

"_I can't! I don't know! Don't you get it!?_" Dark snatched up his notebook and threw it. "_It's been empty all night!_"

Mephiles picked it up off the dark ground and flipped through the pages. Yep… they were blank.

"Then find a way to fix it…" He growled. "You think you're smarter than me, so fix it!"

Dark sighed and brought a hand to his forehead, hoping that Mephiles would remember that he was still recovering from extracting the poison from him.

"_Look… I can't fix it. I don't control the book, I just own it…_" He tried to explain. "_I don't know where I got it from, or how I know it works, but I know that it has worked up until now…_"

"Well, _some_body is going to have to explain it all to me, since your book isn't working!"

"_You're such a brat…_" Dark growled under his breath. "_I knew that from the moment I met you…_"

"That didn't seem to stop you from trying to use me!"

"_The matters of that were complicated!_ _I had to, or… or… or…_" Dark stopped, frowning at himself when he realized that his memory could not recall the reason at all.

Mephiles realized that Dark was having that problem and cooled down.

"You… You really don't remember why?" He said in astonishment as his rage at Dark just faded.

Dark flinched and stepped back, baring his teeth without much effort.

"_I don't have to tell you anything…_"

"Oh, Dark…" Mephiles ignored that attempt of a threat. "Do you remember anything about yourself before you met me?"

"… _I'm not answering that…_"

Mephiles held up his hand.

"Did you forget that I had that ability to access your memories?" He said, blinking a few times. "If you don't want to tell me… I'll just have to see for myself…"

"_You don't even know how to work it right!_" Dark threw at him.

"No… perhaps not… but, I can figure it out." Mephiles took a step or two around the couch, Dark taking the same amount back.

"_Get away from me!_" Dark threatened. "_Back off, or I'm break that hand!_"

"Doesn't really matter if you do, the injury won't carry over to the real world." Mephiles reminded him.

"_I bite!_"

"So can I."

"_I'm warning you!_" Dark was running out of intimidating things to say. This was starting to worry him, but not as much as what Mephiles might find in his head.

"Keep on warning then. I'm not afraid of you anymore."

That did it. Dark couldn't stand Mephiles not at all being scared of him. Dark reacted quickly and jumped at Mephiles, who held both his hands up in a way to try to shield himself from Dark's assault.

When Dark was close enough, Mephiles twitched and shoved his arms out, his hands touching against Dark's chest as the demon grabbed one of Mephiles' quill clumps and yanked it roughly, Mephiles yelping in pain before the next thing happened.

Both of them froze as a daydream like trance hit both of them, and the next thing they knew, they were in the laboratory, looking as new as ever, an orange light radiating from the center of it, electric pulses being shot at it.

Dark made a sound that was like a cross between a whimper, a yelp, a gurgle, and a moan, keeping his eyes fixed on the middle of the room, staying still as if he was a mouse a cat just spotted and was being stared down.

Mephiles, as perplexed as ever, wondered several things: One. Why was Dark acting like this? Two. Why was Dark in the memory as well? And three. Who's memory between the two was it?

Dark's other hand, which was resting on Mephiles' shoulder, tightened almost painfully as they watched the experimentations on the flame of Solaris, Mephiles taking note that Dark was beginning to… tremble?! _Dark?!_

"Dark? What's wrong?"

Dark jumped at his name and looked at Mephiles with an unusual expression before regain his normal one with a quick breath, snarling at Mephiles as he did. He let go of Mephiles' quill clump and planted his hand on his chest to shove the hedgehog away, the vision around them fading to black.

Mephiles stumbled back and slipped on the notebook, hitting the ground on his back with a **WHUMP**, a shockwave of pain coursing through him after that very rough landing.

"_What was _that!?" Dark barked at him, making his way to Mephiles.

"Don't look at me!" Mephiles scooted back as quickly as possible. "That's not one of _my _memories!"

Dark stepped behind where Mephiles was going, causing the hedgehog to bump into him. Dark kicked him in the back.

"_You had no right to be doing that!_"

"Excuse me! How many times have you invaded _my _brain!?" Mephiles rolled onto his front so he could get to his feet. "If anyone should be in trouble, it's you!"

"_I don't start pulling up lost memories!_"

"Yeah, you don't! You lock them away for years and- wait…" Mephiles stopped once he was on his feet. "Lost?"

Dark froze. Where had that statement come from? He didn't know… why was he feeling so strange? So… different? That little trip had rattled him… but that was impossible! He was fearless… right?

He narrowed his eyes dangerously, and hissed: "_I have no idea what you could be babbling about…_"

"Dark… I think you do…" Mephiles said slowly, tilting his head to the side. "It's… I dunno how to explain it… but I can feel something coming off of you… an emotion I think…"

"_Oh, really?_" Dark folded his arms. "_And what do you think it is?_"

Mephiles furrowed his brow in thought and closed his eyes to think.

"… It's… it's faint…" He explained. "Like it's deep down… but, I know this feeling… it's doubt."

"_And why would I be doubting anything?_"

"… Are you sure that you know everything about yourself?"

"_Positive…_" Dark said slowly, though something was nagging in the back of his mind. He felt the desire to smack his hand into the side of his head to drive it out, but Mephiles would catch on.

Mephiles frowned before opening his eyes again.

"I don't know if you were aware of this…" He told him. "But you were trembling when you saw Solaris… or, at least… what was being done to him…"

Dark gulped inwardly, but remained stoic on the surface.

"_No, I wasn't… you were seeing things…_"

"I felt your muscles shake too…"

"_No, you didn't…_"

"Yes, I did." Mephiles said, raising an eyebrow. "Look, I dunno what's going on with you, but I need you to stop acting up."

"_I am not acting up!_" Dark barked again. "_How dare you treat me like a child!?_"

"Wake up, Dark. I'm eleven." Mephiles rolled his eyes. "You're younger than me. We're both children in the age sense, no matter how mature or intelligent we may be."

"_I do not follow the rules of aging!_"

"Do you follow _any_ rules for that matter?"

Dark would have advanced on Mephiles, if not for the fresh memory of what had just happened when he tried to attack him.

"Dark?"

"_I won't answer that…_"

"That doesn't surprise me…"

"_When did you learn how to have such a sharp tongue!?_" Dark was growing tired of Mephiles comebacks, which seemed to come as quickly as any of them had time to think.

"When you tormented me." Mephiles folded his arms and glared at Dark. "You have no idea to what degree that did to me…"

Surprised by Mephiles' boldness, Dark tried to set things back to the way he was used to.

"_Oh, big wah… You're still little Mephy Boy…_" He scoffed, twirling his finger in the air.

That set Mephiles off.

In a faster reaction time than Dark could have thought, Mephiles was behind him and clamped his hand onto a fistful of Dark's quills.

Dark hadn't expected this and was shocked to find that he was unable to move much of anything other than his mouth to snarl at Mephiles.

"_Let go of me… or I'll kill you!_"

"You can't kill me! You need me to fight Iblis!" Mephiles growled, shaking Dark a bit to show that he wasn't fooling around. "Besides, if you were to kill me, you won't be able to get out of my mind. That, and if you somehow did, Shadow and Rouge will be sure to get rid of you!"

"_And if they can't?_" Dark brought his hands up to try to pry Mephiles' off of him.

"Oh, believe me!" Mephiles laughed at him coldly. "Shadow can be pretty scary if he's mad! If you just up and killed me, he'll find a way to kill you!"

With that being said, Mephiles threw him to the ground, Dark bracing himself against it with his arm. He lifted his eyes to stare at Mephiles viciously, trying to mask over that Mephiles' reactions to his earlier statements had somewhat troubled him. Perhaps he was losing his touch, but he was certain now that Mephiles was in fact _not _afraid of him anymore.

Where had he gone wrong?

He could remember vividly when the mere sight of him would almost cause the hedgehog to faint. To scream. To run and hide. To go mad…

And now, here was that very same hedgehog, not even a year older since his reawakening, and he was standing up to Dark, throwing threats at him just as easily as he was trying to befriend him.

He could really see now that Mephiles had indeed changed over the course of his life, more noticeably since the last _month. _He could see in Mephiles' pale imitations of his own eyes that the young hedgehog was no longer a "Mephy Boy", but was most certainly a "Mephiles".

Dark shook his head to push aside those thoughts, dismissing them as absurd as he pushed himself up off the ground, locking his eyes with Mephiles, who had his arms folded again.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore." He stated again plainly. "I am not a little chew toy that you can use whenever you feel like venting. I am not your little puppet you can manipulate. And I am not 'Mephy Boy'. I am Mephiles the Hedgehog, son of Erin, little brother of Chinus and Ceus, best friend of Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat, and 'Dad' to Krystal, Sharpe and Kai."

Dark was taken aback as he stepped away backwards, Mephiles closing the gap between them slowly.

"I have faced against you more than once, and every time… you've lost." He continued, narrowing his eyes. "I have been pushed beyond my boundaries, and I have been broken more times than not. I have endured more than you have dished out, and it's time now for me to put my foot down."

Dark broke his gaze to look behind him, trying to make sure he wasn't going to trip on his notebook, which had already tripped Mephiles.

"I am the one that controls me. If you are to want my help, I'll gladly give it so long as you do nothing to belittle me, harm me, or otherwise upset me." Mephiles continued. "Now. Let's start over. Are you sure that you have no idea where that memory came from?"

Dark nearly choked. Mephiles hadn't forgotten about that after all! He had been hoping that this had distracted him, but it just didn't work!

Reluctantly, Dark nodded slowly.

"I see…" Mephiles regained his normal façade, and backed off from Dark, turning away to pace. "Well, I know that it can't be my memory, since I was a hedgehog in a cage. All other things point out that it's yours." Mephiles looked up. "Tell me… what do you remember about yourself before the project went wrong?"

"_How can I tell you, if it was the explosion that created me?_" Dark rolled his eyes.

"You and Iblis had to have been one being at one point in order to have made Solaris." Mephiles said with some thought. "You said that you were the brains, so Iblis must be what you aren't."

"_Stupid?_" Dark said without thinking.

"No." Mephiles snorted, having thought that that was a bit amusing. "What I mean is that you must be the conscious thought, while Iblis is the raw power."

"_Are you suggesting that he's more powerful than me?_" Dark growled warningly.

"No. I assume the both of you are equal." Mephiles shook his head. "You have the gift of the right kind of intelligence to possibly outsmart him. If the both of you are at the same power level, then neither of you are able to really win if it's a battle of that. It must be a battle of wits and wills."

"_What kinda power level are we talking about here?_"

"Huh?"

"_Give me a number so I can work a visual._"

"I dunno… nine thousand?" Mephiles said, figuring Dark would like a large number as the representative.

"_Can't it be over nine thousand?_"

"Don't you dare…"

"_What?_"

"Never mind…" Mephiles rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I assume that Iblis is just as smart as you. So it's also a matter of who wears out first…"

"_Since when are you the one giving directions?_" Dark shot at him, realizing that Mephiles was telling him what to do.

Mephiles narrowed his eyes.

"I don't see why I bother with you…" He shook his head.

"_Neither do I…_" Dark shrugged.

Mephiles was about to say something sharp to him, until something stopped him.

He was hit with a sudden remembrance of lyrics to a certain song he had heard before.

_  
Everything has something for you  
That voice inside of your head got you projecting paranoia  
Cold sweat shining on your face  
Exposing your purpose  
And if I ripped off your skin I'd probably find another person  
There's nothing worse than trying to bring yourself on back from the dead  
So I advise you: listen to that voice in the back of your head_

_Why do I always find the right lyrics for a moment like this?_ Mephiles growled to himself, recalling a time or two when he had used a song snippet to make his point.

He shifted his eyes back to look at Dark, who was unaware of what Mephiles had heard.

Dark had always been that voice in the back of his head. The one that he tried to never listen to. The one that always seemed to like bugging him. But was it for a reason? Even if Dark didn't know it?

Dark seemed to have a mystery about himself, even if he didn't know, or tried to deny it.

Why was he denying it? It was almost like he didn't want to know. Or was there something about he that he didn't want to remember?

Was Dark more of an enigma than he thought? Was Dark an enigma to himself?

Mephiles shook his head lightly, Dark watching him with confusion, as if he was trying out what was going on in the hedgehog's head. He seemed to have a guess.

"_No._"

"Huh?"

"_I don't need your help with anything other than what I asked._" Dark folded his arms and bared his teeth. "_You aren't going to be rewarded for doing overtime._"

"Not like I was getting a reward anyway…" Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"_Then what reason do you have for helping me?_"

"I told you." Mephiles shook his head. "I'm doing it because it's what I do. I feel the need to help. Unlike you."

"_I helped you a few times!_"

"Did you help because you wanted to… or because if I died, I was of no use to you?"

Silence.

Dark was silent. He couldn't for the existence of him remember why he had in the first place.

Why was he even caring?

He growled.

"_I believe your time with me is making me soft._" He said accusingly.

"Do you always blame me if you don't have an answer?" Mephiles stared at him skeptically. "Because, sooner or later… You're going to have to admit to your mistakes, and the bad things you do."

"_You wish so deeply…_" Dark rolled his eyes. "_Because that's not going to have to happen, because I'm never wrong._"

"You're about as far from perfect than anyone I know." Mephiles countered. "And the way that you are makes me pity you, because you are nothing like me, right down to the people I have to be there for me… you've got nothing."

That hit Dark and welled up something in him that he forced down before responding coolly: "_It is you how should be pitied. Your family is dead, and- _AHHHK!"

Dark shot his hands up to his face as a searing pain exploded from his nose, Mephiles having charged up his hand with Chaos energy, and punched Dark in the face with as much force as he could muster, Dark screaming out curses and profanities most foul as he clutched his nose, which, to his shock, was actually bleeding quite profusely.

"_YOU INSIGNIFICANT PEST! I'LL CRUSH YOU TO DUST!_" Dark threatened, eyes gaining their red glow just slightly.

Mephiles was staring at him with an angry expression before he blinked and gasped harshly, obviously shocked with himself for reacting so harsh, and hurried over to the box of tissues he had imagined earlier. He grabbed a thick wad and shoved it into Dark's hand.

"Quick! Apply pressure to it! It'll stop bleeding if you hold it like that for a while!" He instructed, leading Dark to the couch then jumping back to stay out of arms' reach, knowing that if Dark got a hold of him, he was most likely going to lose the ability to use his limbs properly. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! You just referred to my family in a way I didn't like, and I snapped! It was your tone that did it!"

"_It would be wise to stay out of my reach for a while…_" Dark narrowed his eyes, pupils contracting dangerously, showing Mephiles that Dark was ready to attack him for that. "_Otherwise, you might find that my fingers found a way around your fragile little neck…_"

Mephiles nodded carefully, staying well out of reach before asking: "I didn't break it, did I?"

"_Not likely, though the sensation that is coming from this injury is among the most pain I have felt at once. It's dangerous to be trying to break noses…_" Dark added in a softer warning tone, thought there was still a great degree of anger behind it. "_If the wrong angle is hit, the brain will be injured or worse, and the injured would die. I'm sure you don't want a dead body in your brain, now would you, Mephiles? There would be no way to extract it…_"

Dark was starting to compose himself again, and Mephiles could tell at the use of his name. He nodded slowly.

"I said I was sorry…" He added, looking down at his feet, having taken no time at all in returning to his usual timid self.

"_Did you also forget that I'm still recovering from that poison?_" Dark frowned as he pulled the tissues away to look at how his nose was doing, touching it and wincing. "_In case you've failed to notice, that's why I'm a bit edgy right now. And you hassling me is not helping matters in the slightest..._" He pressed the blood spotted wad back to his nose, which was beginning to let up.

"Well, I didn't ask you to take it from me…" Mephiles said slowly, looking up the black void of a ceiling. "I'm sure I would have recovered anyway since I have that accelerated healing ability…"

"_It doesn't work on poison…_"

"No kidding?" Mephiles shot his eyes back to stare at Dark. "It can heal bones, cuts, most physical injuries, and any blood loss, so why not poison?"

"_Poisons of any kind are an entirely different matter, Mephiles…_" Dark began explaining. "_Poisons are a type of drug or just toxins, not injury, though they may cause them. In order for your healing powers to take full effect, the poisons must be either neutralized or removed entirely. They affect you just as much as the next Mobian._"

"Well, that bites…"

"_You can't always have a power that fixes everything. The laws of nature will not allow it._"

"I… suppose…" Mephiles was a bit disappointed that his safety net had a hole in it.

Dark sensed his disappointment, and narrowed his eyes at him.

"_You can't expect for you to always come out unscathed…_" He said matter-of-factly. "_According to the rules of things, you should have an equal amount of damage as much as reward._"

Mephiles sighed.

"_By, the way…_" Dark added. "_When are you going to finish redecorating the place? I've seen the same black abyss for far too long, and you only have a few things here…_"

"I'm not working on it until you leave my brain…" Mephiles folded his arms. "You've had a rage fit already, and if the area had dimensions and stuff, you'd end up shredding them up before I could stop you if you have another fit."

"_Oh… I suppose that's good logic…_" Dark shifted his eyes to the side, knowing that at the way things were going, his rage fits were going to be more common. "_What about a door? I'm running out of different ways to knock you out, and I don't like to repeat myself in anything…_"

"A door? What, so you can find your way out of here?" Mephiles shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that's asking me for too much… it makes me suspicious…"

"_I won't _do _anything…_"

"No…" Mephiles said with finality to his voice that Dark knew he didn't want to discuss this any further, which made Dark a bit angry. He wanted to know why!

"_So, how are you going to get out then… if I don't hit you?_" Dark smirked, thinking that his little plan as to how to get his answer would work.

Mephiles rolled his eyes, and then struck himself on a pressure point with a flat palm strike, shocking Dark a bit. He hadn't expected that!

Once Mephiles disappeared from sight, Dark let out a frustrated groan and flopped back on the couch, still pinching at his nose to get it to stop bleeding, which it was starting to let up.

Where had Mephiles learned to be more assertive? He could remember when Mephiles was a little, scared, trembling hoglet, confused about what had happened to him, and was puzzled about the voice that was speaking to him. Dark almost snorted at the memory of little Mephiles curing up into a spiky brown ball of quills when Dark introduced himself, being just a voice among darkness when he had yet to take a form.

But, anyway… when had Mephiles learned that he could stand up to Dark and treat him as if the two of them were equal? Was he right, when he said that Dark's torment of him caused a drastic change in him? Mephiles did seem less timid, and his fur did not stand at the sight of Dark… so was it true?

Dark was disappointed. For as long as he could remember, he had been the object of Mephiles' fears…

As long as he could remember…

How long was that, anyway?

He had existed for as long as the explosion had happened ago… but, why did he have a distinct memory of despising Iblis that felt longer than that? Why did he immediately refer to Iblis as "brother" when he talked about him, as if he was without a doubt certain that the two were related, though both were only two halves of one whole? Why did he seem to know a lot about Iblis, yet since the accident, this is the first time he remembered actually meeting him?

Dark unpinched his nose, happy to see that it had stopped bleeding and reached a hand to the floor to see if his notebook was close by. Then he remembered that it was a little bit away from the back of the couch.

Groaning in frustration, he was half tempted to just leave it there, but he knew it was his only way to even get a fraction of an answer, so he got off the couch to retrieve it. Once he returned to the couch, lying on his back, he held the notebook up to his face and muttered: "_If you don't work this time, I swear I'm disowning you…_"

Taking a deep breath, he pulled the cover back and could see at first glance that the pages had writings on them. That's good… step one was finished.

Scanning his eyes across the pages, his eyes narrowed slowly as he took it all in, turning the pages a few times. Then his eyes shot wide and he flung the book as far away from him as possible.

Half standing on the couch, he was panting heavily, his still outstretched arm shaking as well as the rest of him.

"_That's not possible…_" he half whispered, shaking his head. "_It's just speculation… it's probably not even true…_"

Dark swallowed a lump that had settled in his throat, wondering why he was overreacting so much. The notebook hadn't worked the last few times, so maybe it was malfunctioning… but if so, that would mean a piece of his mind was malfunctioning as well, since the book was from _his _brain…

The book hadn't landed far, and the page he had stopped on was laying face up, big letters if to make its point.

_You're not what you think you are…_

"_WHAT AM I THEN!?_" He shouted at the book, feeling a bit silly that he was yelling at a book. "_I KNOW WHAT I AM, _RIGHT!?_ I'M A DEMON! A SHADE! A DOPPELGANGER! A MONSTER! RIGHT!?_"

The book didn't move, not that he was expecting it to. He didn't know why he was expecting an answer… the book _must_ be malfunctioning. That's the only logical reason he could think of…

But, what was so logical about a book that had a mind of its own? One that could change its own pages to reflect what you know?

Dark lowered himself to sit on the couch, holding a hand to his forehead. Maybe the poison was affecting the function on the book as well. Why was he getting so worked up over it? If the book was not responding properly, then there was no guarantee that what he got from it was fact.

That was all.

Nothing more.

He was sure of it…

About as sure as he was about him beating Mephiles last month…

Dang… that wasn't too sure…

* * *

Mephiles woke up still sitting in the chair, his head having rested a bit on his shoulder. Rouge was staring at him with a hint of a smile.

"We oughtta get you tested for narcolepsy…" She half laughed. "You just fall asleep at the oddest times, and quite often…"

Mephiles smiled smally.

"That's what Dark said…" He said before looking at Shadow. "How's Shadow doing? I don't know how long I was asleep."

"About an hour." Rouge told him. "The doctors told me that that he was recovering a little quicker than expected, but not by much. I don't think he'll be awake until at least a couple more days."

"As long as he gets better…" Mephiles nodded. "I wish I could use my healing powers on him, but apparently they don't work with poison…"

"Who told you that?"

"Dark. My powers have quite a few flaws in them, so I can't really use them as much as I would want to…" Mephiles paused, half wondering if he should share his finding of Dark's memory of the lab or not. He decided against it. It was Dark's business, and something told Mephiles that it would only cause Dark to lash out if he started spreading his findings with anyone. "So, my safety net is full of holes…"

"Hmm… but you're also quite smart…" Rouge added, as if trying to make sure Mephiles wasn't going to be upset by that. "That could be your backup safety net."

"Y'know… you're right!" Mephiles grinned, nodding his head. "Thanks, Rouge."

"No problem…" She smiled before looking at Shadow, who looked like he was simply asleep.

* * *

So Mephiles stood up to Dark, huh? And Dark is having doubts about something... this is going to be interesting.


	18. Remembering

Not much going on here...

Hopefully, next chapter will be much better ^^;

* * *

Dark was fuming. His notebook was speaking nonsense. He was sure of it.

Bringing his hands up to his face, he dragged his razor sharp claws down his face slowly, wincing as the claws dug into his cheeks, reopening the wounds that Mephiles had left on their first encounter in Dark's mind.

His fingertips spotted with his own blood, he grimaced at it. For the first time he could remember, he was sickened at the sight of blood…

No… it wasn't the first time…

Yes, it was…

No…

Yes.

No…

"YES!" Dark screamed, clapping his hands to the top of his head.

Where was this second voice coming from? From him? Where? Where?!

Dark was inexplicably shaking, so much in fact, that he had to lower himself to the ground on his knees. He braced himself with a hand, taking deep breaths to compose himself.

What was going on with him? Was this part of Iblis' draining of him? Was he pushing thoughts into his head? Thoughts that Dark was certain was not his own.

Yes, they were…

No, they weren't!

Dark slammed his head into the ground with enough force to make it throb. Squinting through the pain, he clutched his head with both hands now, panting deeply.

He had to get out of here! Mephiles' meddling with his mind was unleashing something that Dark was frightened of.

But, what was it? What was scaring him so much? So much that he couldn't stand? So much, that he was willing to inflict pain upon himself to distract his mind from it?

His mind…

There was something buried there. Buried deep. He was sure of it!

No! It was the poison that was making him think that. He was making something out of nothing. There was nothing there. Nothing at all…

Dark pulled himself back up on the couch to lay down, certain that the poison's cure hadn't run its full course yet. He was simply thinking nonsense. That's all.

The book was wrong. It _had_ to be.

…

…

Unlike its brother, the shadow was unable to move as the flame took off out of the lab, the scientists lay unmoving on the floor.

It couldn't move, because it was the shadow of nothing, and it required something to attach to to be granted movement.

A small, spiky mammal was wandering along the wall, sniffing at the air. One could tell that the little creature was frightened by the scene before him, and he was half ready to turn around and scamper away.

The shadow waited as the paws of the little hedgehog neared, and would have been on baited breath as it waited for any form of contact, the hedgehog unaware of the little trap before him.

A paw touched the shadow almost as soon as the shadow had dropped to the ground, and he sprung to life, startling the little hedgehog enough to scream out in fright as the shadow engulfed him in an attempt to give himself life.

It worked. Though he could hear the hedgehog's squeals and cries, only this time, it was accompanied by words, as if he could understand what the hedgehog was shouting.

He didn't have the time to listen. All he heard was another voice.

"They're escaping!"

"We'll have to split up! I'll pursue Mephiles!"

Mephiles? Who was that? He didn't know… he had to get out of there! He didn't want to be around when his brother found him!

…

…

Dark frowned. What was that? Most likely it was a memory of his, since Mephiles was the hedgehog. But how come he ha d never heard of that before now?

He shuddered as a new complex combination of emotions washed over him.

Anger. Fear. Confusion. Doubt. Repulsion.

Anger at himself for no reason he could really see.

Fear of what was happening to him.

Confusion as to why.

Doubt. Doubt about what he knew.

Repulsion at all of this, disgusted at how easily he was breaking to this.

He took a deep breath. He _had _to. He knew that if he lost control again that Iblis was sure to drain him. But how was the flame demon achieving this goal?

Dark pondered to take his mind off of his other problem.

He snapped his fingers.

Though Dark was hiding his remaining psych in Mephiles' mind, Iblis still had access to it from Dark's mind if the shadow demon emitted enough energy! Dark was nearly pulsing with more Chaos Energy than he could keep at bay… that was, until Iblis started taking it…

With that little dilemma solved in his opinion, Dark was forced back to his previous one reluctantly.

He wasn't what he thought he was? What was he then, if he wasn't a shadow demon that became an evil doppelganger?

Something was deep in Dark's mind. He could sense it. But it was out of his reach. Too far away to scrape his fingers against it, but close enough to be aware that is was there.

What was it? Why did it feel so important? Why was it there? Why was it hidden? A mystery?

It felt like an empty chunk of his mind, one that he suddenly became aware of and felt as if he had known that it was there all along.

But he hadn't! There was nothing there! His brain was playing tricks on him!

Dark paused in thought to mutter something to himself.

"_Perhaps _I'm _the one with multiple personalities. I can't seem to agree with myself…_" He hid his face in his hands, as if to hide his puzzled expression from someone, though he knew no one was there.

For a long time he sat on the couch like that, trying to dig deeply into his mind, only to find a barrier after reviewing what had come to him.

"… _There's something blocking it… what..?_" He said slowly, pulling his crystal clawed hands from his face, only to find to his disgust that the cuts on his face had bleed a bit on his palms and fingertips.

Snatching a tissue from the box, he spat on it before wiping the blood off, removing the crimson spotting easily, and tossing the crumpled tissue aside.

When had the sight of blood caused him to cringe so much? He used to enjoy licking the little amounts off his fingers that he had gotten off of Mephiles, and now it was making his stomach turn at the thought of having done that.

He flopped on his back on the couch, resting his arm over his eyes as he rested his other hand on his fluffy chest, sighing to himself before something pushed itself forward onto his tongue. That something was in his voice, but it felt like it was from something or someone else, but at the same time, he knew it was him.

"… _I've… been a very bad boy…_" He whispered before frowning to himself slowly. He reached a hand into one of his quill clusters and yanked a quill out to put it between his teeth to chew on it in thought.

He was going to ask Mephiles a few questions when he got back…

* * *

Quite some time went by as Mephiles and Rouge waited for Shadow to wake up.

Mephiles sat where he was without moving much at all for nearly half a day.

After a while, Rouge asked: "Are you planning on eating anytime soon? You haven't done that since before we got here…"

Mephiles looked up with a half tire expression and shrugged.

"… How do I know Iblis won't try that again..?" He muttered.

"I understand that you're reluctant to do so… but you'll have to eat eventually." Rouge reasoned. "… Anything."

"… I would prefer that the food was in some sort of air tight thing with a way to see if it had been tampered with…" Mephiles said quietly. "… So I can feel a bit safer about that…" He paused before raising an eyebrow. "Dark says that Iblis might not try to pull that off again…"

"I'd rather trust your judgment…" Rouge told him, shaking her head. "We can look and see if there's anything you'll be interested in eating while we wait for Shadow."

"And leave him here alone?" Mephiles frowned. "Remember when you did that with me last time?"

"Well, yes… Of course… that was frightening. But I also doubt that you want either of us to be left alone."

"No. But either we both go, one of us stays or none of us go."

"I don't think Shadow is going to be attacked or anything if we're gone for a little while." Rouge said, trying to find some way that could allow her to get Mephiles to eat anything. "We'll be quick about it if it makes you feel better."

"If only Rae or someone was here so we could have groups of two." Mephiles muttered. "We'll be real quick, right? I don't like the idea of leaving Shadow by himself."

"Neither do I, believe me."

They were on the third floor of the hospital, and luck would have it that there was a small café area that took up a corner of one of the hallways. Nearby, a vending machine was there as well.

After trying to decipher more than half the names for coffee there, Mephiles chose something that he was sure didn't have any type of cream in it, not wanting to let his dairy allergy be the next big problem they had to deal with.

He sniffed at it carefully before touching his tongue to it, only to yelp and pull it away quickly, having forgotten briefly how hot it can be.

"I think I burned it…" He said prodding his tongue lightly with a finger before nodding. "Yep… It's burned… Ow…"

"That's why you have to let it cool down." The bat reminded him as she was handed her drink, which was some sort of hot chocolate with whipped cream. Mephiles cringed a bit at the sight of it, and reminded himself quickly to stay his distance from it. Truth was, though he was allergic to milk items, he still couldn't help the fact that he found that they tasted so good… however… he was cursed to suffer if he ever gave into the temptation. Curse his milk allergy. Curse it!

"I know… but does it have to smell great that I'm tempted to sip it before then?" Mephiles returned his attention back to his flavored coffee, having taken his chances with a cocoa choice, knowing that the cocoa bean in its purest form was quite safe for him.

"I saw that you were sniffing at it. Were you also checking it out to see it if was okay?"

The hedgehog nodded.

"Yes. Dark told me that he suspects that my nose and a few other places have more concentrated Chaos Auras, so I'm guessing that's why I was able to smell that Lemon whatever stuff, even though you say it's odorless. I'm guessing that I could be able to detect it if anything is amiss." He looked up before shouting: "Don't drink yours yet! Let me check first! I don't want you getting hurt either!"

Rouge couldn't help but smile a bit to herself when he snatched it from her and sniffed nearly every inch of it, being sure to keep his nose well away from the whipped cream.

It was decided that it was safe, and Rouge was able to convince him to also grab something of the solid persuasion to snack on. He chose a bag of pretzels from the vending machine, so he was sure that the food he was eating was safe.

Munching on his pretzels once they got back, they continued to wait for Shadow to wake up.

* * *

Dark blinked, drawing his hands closer to himself as the dark abyss changed again, taking the form of one of Mephiles' memories yet again.

Or rather, it stayed an abyss, but the couch and other items Mephiles had left there disappeared.

"… _I'm really starting the hate this so much…_" He growled to himself, turning his head from side to side to try to find something to fix his attention on so he could have a sense of dimension around him.

Then he saw it.

A little brown hedgehog. A light brown hedgehog that had his paws covering his face as it curled up on the ground.

Dark twitched. He knew just who that was.

"_Rings…_"

Dark spun around, trying to locate the voice he had heard, before it hit him. It had been his own.

"What?"

Dark was astounded that he could understand Hedgehog quite well. Perhaps it was from being around Mephiles for so long.

"_He had Rings…_"

Dark rolled his eyes and took a seat on the ground as the little hedgehog uncurled slowly lifted his head and shifted it from side to side to see who had said that. He blinked his solid black eyes and twitched his nose and ears before asking who had said that.

Several minutes passed as Dark watched the young Mephiles acquaint himself with the now named Dark, not at all aware of what was to happen to him over the next decade.

"Where's my mom?" Mephiles asked, sniffing the air, finding it a bit unnerving that there was no scent at all. Strange… not even a new one to help him locate the owner of the voice. He shook his head. "I got out of the cage, and I was sure that they were behind me…"

"_No one here but us…_"

"Oh…" Mephiles said in disappointment. "… Uh… how do I get out of here? I have to be getting back to her, or she's going to be worried…"

"… _I'm afraid we can't get out…_"

"W-why not?"

There was a pause before Dark's younger self answered: "_… I don't know how…_"

The hedgehog backed up a bit before taking off as fast as his little legs could carry him.

"_Where are you going?_"

"I have to get out of here! I'm not supposed to be trapped!" Mephiles ran before he realized that it seemed like this place was never ending. He turned around and hurried in the opposite direction, only to find that it never ended that way as well. "I-I can't be trapped here! I just got out of a cage! I want my mom! Mom!"

"_Calm down…_" Younger Dark was starting to sound annoyed.

Dark folded his arms and narrowed his eyes, wondering why this was important to see. There was nothing here more than their first time they met, and Mephiles was freaking out up and down the place, annoying the ever loving junk out of Dark.

"… _Well… at least it's not that Iblis thing…_" Dark told himself, having no choice but to watch this.

Well, at least he was sure that Mephiles was having a better time than he was.

Or rather… He was half hoping he wasn't… He was bored senseless anyway…

* * *

Shadow shifted his eyes from side to side, folding his ears back and frowning at what he saw.

Hallways with doors.

"Well, haven't seen this place for a while…" He shook his head and folded his arms. "That probably means something happened that was bad enough to drive me into my mind. I wonder what happened…"

Shrugging, figuring that the answer would come to him later, he set off down the hallway, knocking on a few doors and toggling the doorknobs and handles to try to find any unlocked ones.

It would seem that the one that he smashed up about a year ago either repaired itself or disappeared altogether. He had to find another door by the looks of it.

Scratching the back of his head, he sighed as he seemed to have no luck.

"There's gotta be a way out of here. Mephiles can get out of his head, and there's not even one door there…" He trailed off before getting an idea after remembering what Mephiles mentioned.

Grasping the handle of one of the doors, he braced his hand against the frame and slammed his head into the door…

Stumbling back, he waited a moment for his head to stop hurting, and then finally hit the ground.

* * *

Yeah, I brought back the hallways... ^^

Hope this was okay...


	19. Regressing

Well, a bit over a month late... but I must apologize for many reasons:

1. Writer's block for a while.

2. I got a new iPod Touch, so I've been getting used to it. It has internet as long as I can find wi-fi, so I've been keeping some track of some things with it, such as the new TD forums you can find on my profile. We have 12 members now... and still accepting! In fact, sign up now, get 100 posts and get access to a 15 page preview of the rough draft of the ending of this story (It might be months before we get to the official realease... so it's quite a good deal here ^^)

3. I had made a new fic for the "Capgras" stories, and if you check out the story collection "The Dark Side Of The Hog" by Madhog Thy Master (coordinator), and several other people including The Conflicted Writer (I recomend his story "Metal Overdrive", it's nice and long, and uses plenty of Sonic references. ^^), Bureizo za Vampire, Omicron the Icequeen, a few others I haven't gotten arround to reading from, and myself included, you'll see sometime soon that I made a Mephiles fic for the collection. I advise you guys to keep a watch on it, since it's consists of some of the best work I've seen here on FF in a long time ^^

4. Taking some time to play my GameCube since the 360 died a while ago (Yeah... and that sucks because I only had Sonic Unleashed for two weeks before it happened T_T ), so I've been playing Sonic Heroes and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, which was great for getting back to knowing Rouge and Shadow. Bummer the 360 is dead though... that means I have no way to play the only game with Mephiles... T_T

5. Taking some time to hang out with my family. I spend a lot of time writing this stuff... but I don't want to miss out on the important things to me... including my mom, who is still scheduled to go to Iraq in September for 6 months. I've never been away from her longer than 5 days, so this is going to be a bit of a kick in the face. She gave me this unopened vial of clover honey, so I told her that I won't use it until she gets back, so we can use it together. Oh, I should say that she's being sent there for the cleanup... her normal job is properly recycling military vehicles, weapons and such, making sure they end up where they should be and not in the wrong hands. So she's got the coolest job anyway. And she's gotten awards for being the best at what she does ^^

Anyway... I decided to make this chapter more focal on Dark, to help make up for the long wait. Hope you enjoy it ^^

* * *

Mephiles sighed.

"I wish Shadow would wake up soon… not only do we need those Emeralds…" He said. "But I really can't stand seeing him like this…" He paused and frowned. "That's odd… I'm sensing something weird coming from Dark…"

"Like what?"

"I dunno really… but I know it's an emotion he hardly uses… if he ever does really…" He said. "This is weird… I'm not used to Dark being like this… it's almost like a… an attitude change… or something…"

"He's certainly been acting different this whole time…" Rouge added.

"I know. It's really weird…" Mephiles scratched his ear. "But he's still trying to act the same. He pretty much attacked me before I accessed a memory in his head. But I suppose in his defense… I did kinda do that when he told me not to…"

"Well, after all the things he's messed with in your head… he kinda had that one coming…"

"I guess…" Mephiles let his ears sink a bit before he realized that he was giving off a telltale sign that something was bugging him. Before he could correct that, Rouge had already asked him.

"You okay?"

Mephiles sighed.

"The memory I accessed was set about the time he was created. He could see it too, and for a moment… he was really rattled. Like it scared him. But he told me that he doesn't know where it came from or why he was acting like that… or rather, he was denying that it was his and denied that he was freaking out for a few seconds…" Mephiles closed his eyes and shivered a bit.

"How was he acting?"

"I've never seen him like that. He was shaking and sounded like he was trying to scream, but his voice had gotten caught in his throat halfway there or something. It was a bit higher pitched than normal… just a slight bit." Mephiles opened his eyes. "But then he went back to normal and then tried to attack me because he didn't like me looking in his mind…"

"If he's wanting your help, though…" Rouge reasoned slowly.

"He said that that was not what he wanted my help with. He almost got out of hand, but I got him back on a safer level…"

"How?"

Mephiles couldn't help but laugh a little bit.

"I punched him in the nose after he said something about my family. But then I felt bad because he was bleeding…"

"You punched Dark, and he didn't do anything to you?" Rouge was a bit astounded. "Well, then again… after what he did to you last month, he had it coming…"

"That shouldn't be a reason for me to do that!" Mephiles was surprised at hearing this from her of all people. "I mean, if I just starting hitting him because of everything he does to me… I'm no better than him! We'd be completing a vicious cycle that-" Mephiles froze suddenly, causing Rouge to worry about him again.

"Mephiles? Are you alright?"

Mephiles blinked and nodded slowly.

"I think I just… figured out something…" He said with a pause or two. "W-what if Dark is like this because of Iblis? Iblis seems to be like him, but worse… right?"

"I guess…" Rouge nodded and gave him a confused look, not really following this as well as they both wanted.

"What if however Dark treats me is a result of how Iblis treated him? Come to think of it… he's more aggressive than what's considered natural…" Mephiles pondered a bit then snapped his fingers. "I need a book or something to be sure of this but I think I figured out about something buried in his psyche! Where can I find something to do research on that?"

"Well, this _is_ a hospital… so it might be quite possible to find something or someone who can help you…" Rouge paused at the last of the sentence and repeated it softly before smirking.

"A therapist!" Her and Mephiles exclaimed unison.

"That makes sense now! Dark's mind was set up a therapist's office, and he mentioned that it something he needed…" Mephiles was talking quickly, excited about his discovery. "What if Dark was leaving clues, but didn't know or realize it? He might not want help, but he still needs it."

"I know that this could make sense though…" Rouge started to reason. "But we can't really be sure until we can have solid evidence…"

"Rouge! Remember what he does to me? He's aggressive, controlling, belittling, demanding, and, in more ways than one, unstable!" Mephiles ticked the points one by one on his fingers. "He directs all of it at me. I'm the outlet, and I've been abused by him. But this all can't have just started with him. It's a cycle that went around a few goes and it's turned on me now."

"But you won't continue it…"

"I know, I know… but I'm just saying this could all be a piece to some bigger puzzle than what we started with…"

"Didn't we start this whole quest to find out your past?" Rouge reminded him with a hint of a smirk. "Now here we're helping Dark…"

"Well, I found out enough that I needed to know about me to keep me held over for a while…" Mephiles felt his face turn a light shade of pink at this. "I learned that I was really a normal hedgehog at one point, and that I did not come from the explosion that made Dark. I only had fuzzy memories of the explosion because I was not only there when it happened, but Dark's memories somehow made their way into my head. I blame it on us being together for so long…"

Mephiles sighed and glanced at the window. It was starting to darken again, so that meant they had been here at least a day now.

And Shadow still seemed fasted asleep.

As they hoped he would wake up soon, Mephiles and Rouge continued their discussion.

* * *

Dark tugged at a quill idly and continued mulling over his thoughts. He concluded that he had more important things to do than just dwell on something he couldn't explain, so he sat up from the couch and sighed heavily.

He decided that he didn't have much to do, so he settled on the idea of taking a quick trip back to his mind and perhaps salvaging a few things to entertain himself. After all, he wasn't unable to move between the two brains, so there shouldn't be a problem.

A quick close of the eyes and visualizing the place in question, he opened them again and found it just as destroyed as he'd left it.

Sighing again, he looked around for anything still usable and was pleased to find several volumes of books had survived with minimal damage. He found an open ream of computer paper by the desk and a couple of pens and mechanical pencils, so he could start writing down things.

After he had gotten an armful of stuff, he paused and took a moment to look around at the damage he had made in his rage fit here. Sizable claw marks had shredded the wallpaper, the bookcase was a splintered mess, and the couch was barely usable. He could see pages of books still held together with the binding but completely torn from the spines, some of them bent in the shape that would be made by a hand, telling him that he had held the books in place while he tore the pages out in groups. A shattered picture frame lay on the ground, face down and shards of glass around it. The carpet was bald in some places where he had torn the fabric out, and he could see dents in the walls from objects being thrown into them.

Then it occurred to him: This had all been his doing. He had demolished the one place that he used to collect his thoughts. By doing this, he had only his mentality worse by destroying products of his thoughts.

His torn ear twitched and flickered at the sound of hands clapping together slowly, the sound of snide laughter reaching his ears. For a reason he could not explain, he dropped what was in his arms and shrunk against the wall as he turned around to face the source of it.

Standing before him was none other than the very cause of this whole ordeal, his brother, Iblis himself.

"_... Bravo, bravo, little brother… Quite a mess you've made here, haven't you?_"

Dark flattened his ears and bared his teeth as he puffed out his quills and fur.

"_What are you doing in here!?_" The shade demanded. "_You have no business here at all! You have my negative psyche. That should be all you get. It's more than you deserve!_"

"… _You're one to speak… you're no better than me… you did the same to Mephiles, if not worse…_"

Dark almost snapped back with a comeback, but stopped, realizing that that was true. He had invaded Mephiles' mind more than once, and had taken complete control several times before. He was no better.

He lifted his eyes to glare at Iblis and snarled: "_Why did you poison them? I know it was you who did it. I know why you targeted Mephiles, but Shadow was unnecessary._"

At this, Iblis threw his head back and laughed.

"… _Starting to have a heart now, are we? A bit late, I think…_" He purred. "_… It's simple… I knew you could recover Mephiles… and that would have not had the effect I wanted… so I targeted his best friend so that it would really sink in… You can't help Shadow, so Mephiles is left still suffering until his friend recovers…_"

Dark narrowed his eyes even more, but was becoming aware of something strange happening with him at the moment. His legs felt weak and he was panting quickly. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and he could even feel its throbs in his head. Every breath he was taking didn't feel like enough, and he could feel his fur dampen with cold sweat. To his unease, he was also shaking a little, and Iblis could see that. The flame demon twisted his mouth into a grin as Dark felt himself go pale.

Up until now, he hadn't really seen Iblis face to face since their meeting on another plane of existence. Because Iblis had taken his form, right down to the chewed ear, Dark was finding this a little distressing.

The only difference was that Iblis' eyes had a very dim orange glow to them, as if to mimic the light of a flame.

Dark swallowed. Now he could see why Mephiles had been so scared of _him. _It was disturbing to be seeing yourself mere feet away. Not yourself… but copy. Dark knew every lethal and non-lethal capability he had, and it was even more unnerving to him that someone else could use the very same danger to him.

Finding his voice quickly, he spoke up in a level, but sluggish tone: "_Why am I so terrified of you? I have no recollections of our meetings other than recent and of our creation. I hardly remember you at all other than you're my 'brother' and that we highly dislike each other…_"

"… _Highly dislike is putting it lightly…_" Iblis flexed his fingers then curled them into lightly held fists. "_… I am the raw power of Solaris, and you are merely the consciousness… In my position of power, I'm very demanding, and I enjoy showing off what I can do and get away with…_"

"… _B-but that's impossible!_" Dark sputtered. "I'm_ like that! You can't be like that if I am!_"

"… _Let's let you in a little something, Little Brother…_" Iblis smirked before baring his teeth. "_… Because you are the consciousness… you have the ability to contemplate what you've done wrong… but only if you are aware of that ability… You've pushed it away for so long that you've forgotten about what you really are…_"

"_What are you talking about?_" Dark widened his eyes a bit, remembering what the notebook had said. "_Forgotten? What's going on?_"

"… _You think I'm going to tell you?_" Iblis laughed at him cruelly. "_… You're about as thick as that hedgehog…_"

Dark snarled and focused on forming a Dark Spike in his hands. Iblis saw this and raised a hand, waving it with a flick of the wrist.

Dark's eyes widened when the Dark Spike disappeared and he suddenly slumped against the wall, sliding to the ground as he panted quickly when he suddenly felt weak and out of breath.

"… _Wh-what j-just happened..?_" He asked slowly, easing his hand to his head as his vision blurred just a little bit. "_… W-what did you do to me..?_"

"… _You should have known by now that as long as I'm within a close proximity of you, I can draw your power from you when you release it… and every time I do, you body has to compensate for the loss of energy… _" Iblis sneered. "_… For being the brains, you sure are dumb…_"

Dark felt the desire to sink his claws into Iblis and tear at every place he could reach, but he was feeling too tired now to stand up right. His head was starting to buzz now.

He blinked and realized that Iblis now had a hold of his left arm with both hands firmly, his foot pressed against Dark's side.

"… _Wh-what are you doing?_" Dark felt uneasy about the angle it was being held at.

Iblis made sure his grip was good on the arm and locked gazes with Dark before grinning wickedly.

"… _Making sure I'm not to be taken lightly…_"

"_But, wh-_"

Dark was cut off with his own scream of pain when his arm was yanked roughly and he felt something pop out of place. Searing pain erupted from his shoulder and he collapsed on his right side, clenching his hand against the injury tightly, so consumed with pain that he could hardly process the other, less severe injuries he was receiving. Squinting his eyes a bit, he could just make out Iblis raking his claws against his arm, face and chest, though Dark almost couldn't feel it at all…

* * *

When Mephiles had returned that night, he was shocked to find Dark injured and curled up just feet away from the couch.

Dark was catatonic, and stared fixedly at something in the darkness around them as Mephiles carefully checked over the injuries.

There were claw marks and bites on him, and Mephiles first thought was that Dark had lost his mind and tried to hurt himself, until he realized that Dark was bitten on his elbow as well, which was impossible to self inflict.

The white fur on his chest was stained with blood from several sets of cuts that had been made from claws raking across them slowly. There was a bruise forming on his pale muzzle, and blood sputtered from his nose every time he breathe out, some of it bubbling a bit a couple of times, making Mephiles' stomach turn at the sight of it.

Mephiles trailed his eyes slowly along Dark's injuries and rested his eyes on his left shoulder. There were a few bruises on the upper arm about the size and distance of fingertips, showing him that this was deliberate.

When Mephiles looked at the actual injury itself, he had to cover his mouth to force himself not to throw up.

Dark's shoulder had been dislocated, and was bruised and swollen where it had been pulled forcefully from the joint.

Mephiles was pale and shaky now. It disturbed him to see Dark hurt like this, and Dark was in a trance because of how much he was hurt.

"_WHAT HAPPENED!?_" Mephiles finally screamed when his voice had returned. He pulled at his quills and ripped a few out, whimpering like a scared puppy, shaking his head.

It was bad when Shadow had been hurt. Real bad. That had hurt Mephiles because it was someone he cared about.

But he never would have thought that Dark was even capable of injury to this degree. This was perhaps worse, because now Mephiles _knew_ that Iblis was worse than Dark. He could see what Iblis wasn't afraid to do. Dark had been bad, but he never dislocated any of Mephiles' bones, or left him in such a catatonic state.

Mephiles felt drool pooling in his mouth at an alarming rate as his tongue tingled and his stomach started to hurt, his body shaking feverishly. He snatched one of the airsickness bags he had left by the couch earlier and vomited in it, unable to hold out on it much longer. After he finished, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and tried to find out how to help Dark.

He had healing powers, yes… but his first instinct was to help Dark feel a bit more comfortable, to help ease the pain before he tried to heal him.

The moment Mephiles tried to lift him off the ground however, Dark exploded in a severe case of delirium and started biting, kicking and scratching Mephiles with his right hand, howling, hissing and spitting like a cat, his eyes clouded over.

Mephiles clenched his teeth when Dark sank his into Mephiles' arm, and Dark pounded his fist in the hedgehog's chest, screaming incoherently, but Mephiles wasn't going to give up and leave him like this.

Mephiles endured this for the few feet he had to move him and carefully pulled him up on the couch, Dark's teeth still clamped on his arm.

After prying him loose, he was pleased to find that Dark had calmed down, and was now cradling him arm, falling back into the trance. At least he wasn't screaming anymore.

Mephiles had read that the arm had to be set back in place before proper healing could even start. This made him feel sick again when he knew that that meant causing more pain before it would work, and at how Dark was right now… he wasn't going recognize that as help.

Mephiles bit his lip and carefully gripped Dark's arm with both hands. He positioned it to where he knew it needed to set back in place, held his breath, closed his eyes and shoved it back in place.

He received a hoarse scream, a slap in the face with claws, and he let go just in time for Dark to yank his arm free without risking injury again. This time Dark was using words that Mephiles could make out.

"_Stop it! Stop it! Haven't you caused enough pain!? Leave me alone, Iblis! Stop it! Stop it!_"

"Dark!" Mephiles said loudly so he could be heard, Dark's ear flickering at the sound of his voice. "It's me! I'm trying to help you!"

Dark looked up at him, his eyes still clouded. Because he was so disorientated fro pain at the moment, he couldn't see Mephiles clearly, but his voice had been reassuring that it was not Iblis.

"… _Mephy..? What just happened to my arm..?_"

Mephiles sighed a sigh of relief that Dark was starting to come to, and began explaining about how he had found him and that he was trying help him. Mephiles could have sworn that he had seen Dark's eyes flare up angrily briefly when Mephiles explained how he was trying to help because he was scared that something terrible had happened.

"… _I had gone back to my mind to pick up a few things…_" Dark explained levelly, glaring a bit. "_… I met Iblis there… and he… hurt me…_"

"But how? I don't think you would have just sat there and let him do that!" Mephiles shook his head. "You don't look like you did anything to stop him…"

Dark merely grunted and held his arm, which was still sore and swollen. Mephiles watched him and carefully brought his hand to hover over the arm.

"… _What are you doing..?_" Dark growled softly, having not seen Mephiles heal another before.

"I tried this when I hit Shadow with the remote one time…" Mephiles explained. "I dunno how much I can fix… but I'm sure any amount is going to help…"

"… _What are you talking about..?_" Dark looked up and saw Mephiles was in a trance as his hand started to give off a light purple glow. The pain in his arm subsided a considerable amount, allowing him to move it a bit more but it was still sore.

Mephiles blinked and passed his hand over the bruise on his shoulder and face and repeated the same process, but the pain in those places nearly disappeared altogether.

Then he drew his hand back quickly and rubbed his arm, wincing a little.

"… Oww… I guess I can't do too much without hurting myself…" He muttered.

Dark, at a loss of what to say, simply readopted his usual attitude and said: "_So you can't heal it all the way, eh? That's pretty useless… Not that I'm surprised…_"

"You're welcome, Dark…" Mephiles said flatly, figuring that Dark was just thanking him by trying to act normal again. "But I don't get it… I thought you weren't able to get hurt. The worst I've ever done was a few scratches and your ear. And if he's targeting me… why did he do this to you?"

"… _I guess his message didn't get across then…_" Dark rolled his eyes. "_He had poisoned Shadow so that it would hurt you emotionally, because he's your close friend. But for me… it's a different effect. You've always had some fear of me, and he assumed that if you were to see what he could do to me, it would shatter you because you'd know he's capable of doing to me what I've done to you. In short, he's exponentially more terrible and vicious than me. He dislocated my shoulder almost casually, and I didn't realize that he was going to do that until I saw what angle he was holding my arm before he pulled it…_"

"How did you even let him get a hold of your arm in the first place?" Mephiles frowned.

"… _You could say my mind was elsewhere…_" Dark looked away and Mephiles could see his muzzle darken a shade of red.

"What were you doing back in your mind again if you knew that he was going to be messing with things?"

"_... I was bored so I intended on salvaging a few things to read…_" Dark narrowed his eyes accusingly. "_… You left me with nothing to do but lay on my back on this couch, and I have a mind that requires entertainment, or I could go mad…_"

"You could have asked me to do something for you, and you wouldn't have ended up like this!" Mephiles said loudly, a little upset that it seemed that Dark was blaming him.

"_I can take care of myself!_" Dark barked and bared his teeth. "_I asked you to help me stop him, not take care of everything that happens to me!_"

"Would it kill you to accept help at all?" Mephiles shot back.

"_I DON'T NEED ANY HELP OTHER THAN WHAT I ASKED!_" Dark snapped. "_Something is in my mind that I don't want to know! It was probably buried for a reason, and I've been fine without it! It's better to stay in the present and leave any past I might have had gone!_"

Mephiles widened his eyes in shock. Dark didn't seem to realize what he was saying, and he continued to spout out stuff of the same sort before he paused and noticed Mephiles' expression.

"_What?_"

"… D-dark?" Mephiles said slowly. "Did you just say that you remember something about-"

"_NO!_" Dark said quickly, realizing that he might have said too much and didn't even notice. "_I did not! You must be hearing things again!_"

Mephiles narrowed his eyes and snarled, Dark suddenly remembering that Mephiles didn't like it when someone told him that he was "hearing things". For Dark to say that it "happened" again… well, Mephiles wasn't too pleased at all.

"You're lucky you're still hurt…" He growled. "Or I'd hurt you again…"

"_What's stopping you?_" Dark sneered, adopting his nasty disposition again.

"Because I already had to relocate your shoulder… I don't want to have to do that again…" Mephiles said smoothly. "And I don't like having to hurt someone unless they need it…"

"_Oh, and I don't?_"

"Iblis already did more damage than I could hope to…" Mephiles folded his arms. "And hurting you again is just completing a vicious cycle… which brings me to what I came here to talk to you about originally…"

"_What?_"

"I'm starting to see some pieces click together and I want to know…" Mephiles said a bit more calmly. "Is the way you treat me because of something that happened to you before?"

"_What are you getting at?_" Dark wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"I'm saying that is makes sense to me… you abuse me, and you show the signs of someone that is reacting negatively to the same thing."

"_I don't know what you could be talking about…_" Dark answered truthfully.

"I'm saying it a bit astonishing that I didn't think this before." Mephiles sighed. "You're aggressive, you torment me and at the same time try to keep me from danger you didn't cause, you reject help and insist on doing things yourself, and you try to make me look weak just so you can feel better about yourself. And after seeing what just happened to you, I think this just confirms my conclusion a bit more…"

"_I don't get it…_"

"Dark… I… I think that Iblis must have… abused you or something before you got mean…" Mephiles folded his ears back and for the first time since Dark came to, he saw that Mephiles looked upset. "A-and that you do the same to me because you know that there's something in your mind about it… but you can't find it and… and… D-dark..?"

Mephiles had begun to stutter because Dark stared at him with an intense expression, panting a bit and baring his teeth slightly.

"… _I told you… to stick to what I asked for…_" He snarled between breaths, his eyes widening with madness. "_… What goes on between my brother and I… is none of your concern…_"

With his right hand, he grabbed Mephiles' arm and held it tightly enough that it went numb, Mephiles catching his breath in his throat and shaking all over. With one hand, Dark twisted the arm against the joint slowly, a smirk forming on his lips.

"D-dark… st-stop it… y-you're hurting me…" Mephiles stammered in a small voice, eyes tearing up in pain as he tried to move with the direction of the twist to ease the pain and counter it.

Dark's eyes were glinting madly, and Mephiles realized that Dark had lost his mind again.

"DARK! STOP! THAT HURTS!" He screamed as he tried to pry the shadow demon's hand off of him, but Dark had too much power behind that. "DARK! YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN HIM IF YOU DO THIS!"

Almost instantly, Dark's expression changed and he seemed shocked. His eyes trailed down Mephiles' arm to where he clamped his hand, and could see that Mephiles' hand was twitching from both fear and lack of circulation. Then he could hear Mephiles whimpering. He looked up and saw that the hedgehog had his face hidden in his other hand and had puffed his quills out of instinct. Then he realized that he was twisting Mephiles' arm against the joint, which was the cause of Mephiles' distress.

He let go of the arm and Mephiles jerked it away, clutching it to his chest as he lifted his eyes up to stare at Dark fearfully.

And for the first time he could remember… he felt sorry for trying to hurt Mephiles needlessly.

Dark tried to find the words to apologize, but it seemed like it wasn't really in his vocabulary. After a painfully silent minute, he tried to let him see it by his expression, and tried to reach his good arm out to Mephiles, but Mephiles squeaked, shook his head and jumped back, his eyes wide, shining and scared, if not terrified.

It dawned on Dark that Mephiles was now afraid of him again, but this time… Dark didn't like that. As his mind started to sort things out, he realized that Mephiles had been only trying to help him, and all he got in return was a tongue lashing, insults, and his arm nearly broken as well. Then Dark noticed the bites and scratches that were on Mephiles' arms and face, and realized that he must have attacked him when he was still delusional with the pain of his dislocated shoulder.

Dark felt angry with himself for being such a little beast and tried again to apologize.

"… _M-mephy… Mephiles… I…_"

But something told him to shut up, and he clenched his teeth as he hoped Mephiles would forgive him and still help.

Mephiles was shaking his head slowly and panting, ears plastered flat against his head and tail between his legs. His pale muzzle was already streaked with tears.

"… You… you…" He took a deep breath and screamed as loud as he could: "YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN HE IS! YOU'RE A _MONSTER_ AND YOU'LL _ALWAYS_ BE ONE!"

And with that being said, he knocked himself out and disappeared from sight, leaving Dark alone in the silence.

He didn't feel angry, nor did he feel upset. Or rather… the word upset didn't seem to be an appropriate word to use. He wasn't shocked, because he couldn't say that he hadn't seen something of that magnitude coming, and to say that he was hurt… well, he didn't know how to tell.

But he did feel like something large and heavy was just dropped on his chest, making each breath feel like it was stupid to even inhale because it didn't help him feel any better.

… _You're one to speak… you're no better than me… you did the same to Mephiles, if not worse…_ He heard Iblis' words in his head.

Sure, he hadn't twisted his arm out of place, like Iblis did to him… but he _had_ instead lost any respect Mephiles had mustered over this ordeal, and showed him that he was still a monster at heart.

To hurt Mephiles physically was one thing… but to show him that he could do nothing to change his "twin"… or that everything he had worked with over the whole ordeal's time was just thrown away in a matter of a few seconds…

Well… that was worse to Mephiles than Iblis hurting Dark… because Dark had not changed at all… no matter how hard he tried to help…

And elsewhere, where Mephiles had woken up and was being calmed down and comforted by Rouge as he explained what had happened… He was crying twice as hard because he could feel Dark's emotion that Dark himself could not reach, no matter how hard he tried.

* * *

Wow-ee! This was an intense chapter. I dunno how I got the idea for Iblis to do that to Dark, but somehow differnent thoughts of shoulder dislocation kept popping up in my head, from the movie Blade, to my brother explain how it happens (He taught me a lot of things... right down to how tornados work and the best ways to imobilze someone if you're caught in a problem.), to the memory of that one time I popped my shoulder out of place. I didn't dislocate it... but it still hurt!

So I just kept writing, and I don't think I really planned out any connections other than the "You're no better than..." parts. Anything else was simply coincidental. ^^

See ya next time ^^


	20. Part Of Me

Well now! I have a new chapter for all y'all here ^^

The title of this chapter is reference to a song you might want to look up that can easily describe Dark (Note: I was a bit freaked out to once again find another song that fits something I write, and once again... the song was found long after I started shaping the situation... O_o ).

The song is one of Linkin Park's concept songs back when they were called "Hybrid Theory" (That's also the name of their debut album, BTW).

Here's a sample so you know it's the right one:

_Part of me won't go away  
Everyday reminded how much I hate it  
Weighted against the consequences  
Can't live without it so it's senseless  
Wanna cut it out of my soul  
And just live with a gaping hole  
Take control of my life  
And wash out all the burnt taste  
I made the problems in the first place  
Hang my head low 'cause it's part of me  
Ya hardly see right next to the heart of me  
Heard of me the routine scar  
New cuts cover where the old ones are  
And now I'm sick of this  
I can't stand the sandpaper thoughts that grate on my sanity  
I rather not even be then the man that's staring in the mirror through me_

Look it up ^^

* * *

To say that something dramatic happened in the next few hours could be an understatement to most people, but to Mephiles and Rouge, it was about the most spectacular thing to them in a long time.

They heard a soft grunt from Shadow and he opened his eyes slowly, lifting his hand up to shield them from the light of the florescent light bulbs above him, which had been kept on because Mephiles didn't feel like falling asleep after what had happened in his mind.

Immediately, the crystal hedgehog wiped his eyes dry quickly and slid off the bed he was sitting on and hurried over to his friend's bedside, so happy and relieved that he thought he was going to cry again.

"Shadow!" Mephiles and Rouge both exclaimed happily. "Oh, thank God!"

"God, that hurt… I slammed my head against the door…" Shadow had his hand on his forehead. "So, what happened exactly and why am I the one in the hospital bed? Wasn't it Meph who fainted?" Shadow looked up at them.

"The both of you were poisoned…" Rouge said slowly, looking away from Shadow, who looked at her, frowning slowly.

"H-have you been… _crying_, Rouge?" He said in surprise.

"N-no! Of course not!" Rouge folded her arms and turned away. "What would give you that idea?"

"Because your eyes are a bit red…"

"No, they aren't!"

"I'm pretty sure you were!"

Mephiles sighed and half laughed as he watched the two bicker at each other. He wasn't sure if they knew that he was well aware that the two of them definitely bickered like a couple sometimes, and fact that they were fighting over whether or not Rouge had been crying was just plain amusing to him.

"Fine, I'll ask Meph!" Shadow snapped back. "Mephiles, was she crying?"

"I'm not telling you if she was or wasn't…" Mephiles shook his head and smirked, remembering his promise to Rouge not to tell Shadow. "Sorry, can't help you."

Shadow groaned frustratedly.

"Anyway… how long was I out?"

"About two days… I was out for a few hours…"

"Why did it take longer for me to wake up?"

"D-dark helped me a bit…" Mephiles stuttered a bit on Dark's name.

"Wow, he's sure helping you out…" Shadow said slowly. "I still don't trust him completely… but he's been pretty helpful…"

Mephiles made a slight whimpering moan at this which made Shadow frown as he sat up.

"What happened? I just _know_ something happened while I was out…" Shadow narrowed his eyes. "What happened?"

"… Well… I don't think h-he really meant t-to…" Mephiles said slowly, taking care as to not stare Shadow straight in the eyes as he tried to explain. "B-but he almost twisted m-my arm… and-"

"That _creep!_" Shadow said loudly. "That no good pile of scum! If he was out here right now, I'd kick his a-"

"Shadow! You didn't hear all of i-it!" Mephiles cut across him, wanting to make sure that the story was straight.

"What else do I need to know? He almost hurt you!"

"But he was hurt badly." Mephiles looked up at him. "Iblis had found him in his mind and dislocated his shoulder and attacked him… badly…"

"Oh, really…" Shadow folded his arms, half believing this. "_How _badly?"

"Bad enough that I threw up…" Mephiles' muzzle flushed a bit from stating that so plainly.

Shadow's eyes widened a fraction before going back.

"How can we be sure he didn't do that to himself?"

"His elbow was bit… that's impossible to self inflict…" Mephiles said softly, shaking his head. "And I don't think he'd hurt himself of purpose… he's too smart for that…"

"Why don't you explain what happened from the beginning? I still don't know what happened…" Rouge said.

Mephiles took a deep breath and explained how he had found Dark hurt so badly, that Dark didn't even know it was Mephiles trying to help him, how Dark initially freaked out and flailed about, trying to scare off who he thought (From Mephiles' guess) was Iblis, that Mephiles thought that there was more to this than they knew, and finally how Dark seemed to lapse back into his old self briefly and tried to twist the same arm that was hurt on Dark.

"… I was scared and I think I said something I shouldn't have that really shocked him… But I just wanted to get away from him because he tried to hurt me…" Mephiles said softly, closing his eyes. "But now that I think about it… he must have had a reaction to what Iblis did to him… and he was dealing with that by dishing it out on me…"

"So, you think Iblis… abuses Dark?" Shadow said slowly.

Mephiles nodded and opened his eyes again before Shadow snorted, making Mephiles frown.

"Shadow!"

"This is the second time since this started that he's tried to hurt you." Shadow rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "I don't care what happened to him… it doesn't make it okay for him to do this to you…"

"I'm not saying that it's okay… I'm saying that it explains a lot about him!"

"Like what?"

"His behavior! He's dominant and controlling because that's his coping thing with it. He rejects help. He's got a superiority complex…" Mephiles said ticking it off on his fingers.

"He's a selfish jerk who gets his kicks by torturing a kid…" Shadow stated quite plainly. "Either way, next time I see him, I'm going to punch him in the face… or worse…"

"Oh, I don't think that's a good idea…"

"And why not? He needs it…"

"I already did that… and I almost broke his nose…" Mephiles looked embarrassed about that, though Shadow couldn't see why.

"You did? Well, I'm impressed!"

"I didn't mean to… I just kinda lashed out at him…" Mephiles flattened his ears. "I lost control for just a moment… and I didn't like it…"

"It's not like it made you like him for moment…" Shadow countered. "You're different, and he had it coming…"

Mephiles frowned again.

"Well, then, you should have punched me by now!" He snapped. "What with that tantrum I threw back at the hotel and after I nearly got myself killed in that avalanche!"

Shadow blinked.

"You don't deserve it…"

"And why not? I bit you, and tried to throw a clock at you, so what makes that any different?" Mephiles folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. "I threw a tantrum. He threw a tantrum. What's stopping you from hitting me?"

"Because it wasn't you're fault, and you didn't try to break my arm…"

"There is a chunk in his mind that he can't get to, nor does he want to get to." Mephiles explained. "I think that if I can help him get to the bottom of that mystery, then maybe it might help us against Iblis better…"

"He probably doesn't want help with it because he's aware that it can't be any good to him…" Shadow said, this time not raising his voice. "Not every lost memory is a good one. Some that are lost are better to be lost…"

"So you're saying that it's better for him to not know if he was really good from the start, or if he was really meant to be like this?" Mephiles said slowly. "What if that was what happened with me? What if I had no memory of my past…"

"You did…"

"Okay, what if I _still _had no memory of my past, and that there was something there just out of reach that could be the ultimate answer to everything I needed to know. Something that didn't add up, or make sense, and something was happening that was somehow linked to that… but it only tugged at the back of my mind… bugging me… plaguing me… driving me nearly nuts because I don't know where it's from as it leaks through in increments… Would you still say it's better to leave it be?"

"I did from the beginning… and what makes you say that it's troubling him?"

"The both of us have some kind of link that is still yet to be broken. I can feel his deeper emotions that he can't feel at all. I didn't understand it up till recently… but I can feel what he can't. It's like a block has been put on him or something, but I can feel something that he doesn't know is there."

"Well, then… what's he feeling right now?"

"It's complicated. He's confused as to why he tried to twist my arm… and regrets having let himself do that. He's worried… about what… I can't tell. There's a mix of confusion, disgust, sadness, pain because his shoulder is still bruised and swollen… and… fear? What? Why do I keep finding that?" Mephiles muttered, shaking his head. "He's afraid of Iblis, though he's not going to admit it."

"I still say he's a nutcase. He's insane and unstable…" Shadow said. "And you can't help someone who doesn't want it…"

"… But… something tells me that I should at least try…"

* * *

Dark decided to walk around to try to sort his dizzy thoughts.

Taking one of the thin blankets that had been left here, he used it to make a makeshift sling for his sore arm, trying to reduce much movement, not wanting to agitate it.

"_Perhaps I shouldn't have done that… I doubt he wants to come back for a while… and he's probably afraid to fall asleep…_" Dark muttered to himself, shaking his head. "_… Aw, why do I care? It's his own fault for prying so much… Doesn't know when to stay out of things…_"

Dark continued justifying his own behavior as he explored the rest of Mephiles' mind, taking note to himself not to mess with anything.

He ventured to the subconscious out of curiosity and was surprised to find a cage. Or rather, was more surprised to find what he had at first thought was Mephiles in the cage.

One quick glance and he frowned, narrowing his eyes.

"_Who are _you?" He demanded.

The Mephiles look-a-like looked up at him before smirking, standing up from his corner of the cage and walking over to the end Dark was standing at, then leaned against it, letting an arm hang out.

"Oh, hello! Never thought I'd get to actually _see _you…" He snickered, baring his teeth slightly.

"_Answer my question…_"

"Oh, come on, Dark… you know who I am… or at least you were aware that I was around…"

"_I have no idea what you could be talking about…_"

"Think back…" The new doppelganger said, smirking again. "You mentioned another mind here…"

"_The only mind that should exist here is Mephiles'…_"

"Yes… true… and you're only half right…" The fake Mephiles turned around and tilted his head back before sliding to the ground and giggling. "There is only one mind here, yes… but it's been split by your involvement…"

"_Are you kidding me?_" Dark rolled his eyes.

"Not really… as much as I want to be…" The fake grinned. "Mephiles has two mindsets. His dominant one is the one you know very well… and the other one is the one that takes over during his feral moments. That would be me…"

Dark frowned and took a moment to glance at the make up of the cage. It was steel and there were a few locks of different sorts, from padlocks to combination locks to locks with a mix of both. But there was one thing about that this didn't add up to Dark.

"_You could easily escape by melting…_" He said slowly. "_These locks do nothing…_"

"Oh, I know…" The look-a-like sneered before opening his eyes to look at him. "Heh… these aren't to keep me in… I can get out if I wanted to… but I don't…"

"_Why..?_"

"Because it's no fun, of course!"

Dark took a step back. He could tell already that this little guy was insane.

"Anyway… I'm the one that takes care of all the animalistic stuff Mephiles does…" The crazy one laughed. "You can call me 'Instinct' if we ever meet again. But any who… I could get out anytime I want to… but I choose to do it when Mephiles needs me to…"

"_Such as..?_"

"I'm the one that bit part of your ear off…" Instinct snickered, holding his hands up to his mouth to try to muffle it, but it did nothing. "That side of Mephiles that just attacks like an animal… that's me! Hah!"

Weirdly enough… Dark's confused expression shifted to an eerie calm smirk, and he spoke in a smoother voice.

"_Oh… Is that so? That was you, Instinct… was it?_"

"Yup! Heh heh heh…" Instinct was chortling now.

"_And… do you have any connection to Mephiles… say, like… if you got hurt… would it hurt him?_" Dark started to snicker with him.

"Oh, naw! I'm the subconscious! It would only hurt his feral state of mind for a while… why?"

Just then, Dark stopped laughing and reached his good hand between the bars of the cage and caught Instinct by the throat. Instinct stopped laughing and stared at Dark with a mixture of confusion and anger.

"… _Mephiles doesn't need you right now… you cause more trouble than you're worth…_" Dark said lowly, narrowing his eyes at Instinct.

Instinct smirked viciously.

"Oh… and like you're any better than _me?_" He laughed. "About how much trouble have you caused h-"

**WHAM!**

Dark had pulled his arm forward and slammed Instinct's head into the thick bars of the cage, then let go, watching him stumble back, clutching his head as his eyes rolled back dizzily before his collapsed to the ground with a satisfying **THUD**.

Dark leered at him.

"_Don't ever tell me that again…_" He said before turning around to head back to the main area so he can be sure to see Mephiles if he did decide to come back.

* * *

"Are you planning to fall asleep at _all?_" Shadow said, raising an eyebrow at Mephiles, who, which he could tell since he woken up a couple of hours ago, looked quite exhausted.

Mephiles looked up at him with half closed eyes and half shrugged.

"… I'm still a little afraid of Dark…" He muttered, closing his eyes a bit. "… I guess I had forgotten that we weren't friends and that his main mindset is to hurt me…"

"Still, you look tired… and it's getting late…"

Mephiles merely grunted in response before saying: "I'm not going to fall asleep if I can help it…" No sooner than he had said that, he had to stifle a yawn.

"Mephiles, you'll have to fall asleep eventually…" Rouge said. "You've been awake for several hours already, and you look like you'll fall asleep anyway."

"Not if I can h-"

It took them a moment before they realized that Mephiles fell asleep anyway, in mid sentence nonetheless!

He fell to the side and curled up, muttering under his breath as Shadow and Rouge stared at him.

"We should think about getting him checked out for narcolepsy…" Shadow said, shaking his head.

"That's what I said…"

"Really? So I'm not the only one to notice that he falls asleep quite often?"

"No…"

* * *

To Mephiles' relief, Dark was asleep on the couch.

He breathed out slowly and took a few steps back as if he was afraid that Dark was going to wake up and snap at him.

Mephiles noticed that Dark had made a makeshift sling out of one of the blankets that was there, which he also noticed that Dark wasn't really using any of the blankets to sleep with.

He paused when he noticed something else about Dark at the moment. At a relaxed state, to where he wasn't busy making his expression so fierce… Dark actually resembled Mephiles from what he could see in the mirror. Aside from the both sets of upturned quills (Mephiles' bottom set pointed downward) and the torn ear, of course.

_He _does _look just like me…_ Mephiles thought to himself, wondering why he never really let it sink in before.

Dark stirred for a moment and clutched his arm before rolling on his back and snoring softly.

_I hardly even believe that he can actually fall asleep… I always was under the impression that he drains life force or something… _ Mephiles shook his head.

Dark shuddered and whimpered softly, scrunching his eyes tightly before relaxing again.

_Looks like he has sleeping problems as well… I wonder what just went on in his mind… No, wait… probably better if I don't know… _Mephiles cautiously stepped forward to get a better look. _He doesn't look like a psycho when he's asleep… He almost looks like a kid like me…_

Mephiles clenched his teeth at the thought and shook his head as he looked at his feet.

_Dark's nothing like me… no matter what he does and looks like… He's too harsh and mean. Though, I could tell that when he tried to twist my arm that he wasn't even aware that he was doing that… Only after I got away from him though… I was scared out of my mind before I had time to think about it…_

His ear twitched when he realized that Dark wasn't snoring anymore and he looked up to find Dark staring at him.

Mephiles yelped and jumped back even further, whimpering a moan lightly off his tongue in a way that showed that he was still uneasy about Dark.

"_I thought you wouldn't be coming back for a while…_" Dark scoffed and smirked.

"… Uh… W-well… I have t-to fall asleep eventually, y-y'know…" Mephiles muttered, trying to force a smile back, but ended up with what looked like a nervous tic.

"… _I see you're shaking…_" Dark noted. "_… Do I still frighten you?_"

That came as more of a sincere question rather than a snide remark… it was as if Dark actually cared if Mephiles was still afraid.

Not sure of how else to answer, Mephiles swallowed and nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off of Dark once.

Dark merely nodded as well, then yawned.

Awkwardness was evident. You could just hear it scream in the silence if you strained your ears to listen.

Mephiles could see that the swelling in Dark's shoulder had gone down a bit, but the purple bruising was still flaring up underneath his dark blue fur. It still looked like it hurt though.

He inhaled slowly, timidly moving forward just a little.

"… I-I'm sorry about wh-what I said…" He stuttered, perking his ears forward just slightly. Dark looked up at him and did the same with his own ears. "… I-It was just that you scared me, a-and I… Well, I said something I really didn't mean…"

"… _I don't think I was always like this…_" Dark said softly, closing his eyes. "_… I don't remember if I was, but something about me feels off since I tried to strike that deal with Iblis…_"

"Something feels off?" Mephiles raised his eyebrows as his eyes rounded a bit. "If you don't mind me asking, care to elaborate a bit more?"

Dark opened his eyes and squinted through one eye, flashing an expression for a moment that said that he did indeed mind, but took a moment to think about it and decided otherwise.

"… _The thought of blood sickens me now…_" He said slowly, pressing his right hand to the right of his forehead. "_… And… I really don't feel like myself… And meeting Iblis just now felt like it… for lack of a better term, rattled me. But for some reason, I could hardly do more than run my mouth around him… I couldn't really move, and I was finding it odd that the air felt a bit… thin…_"

"That would be the feeling of fear… if I'm thinking that was your reaction…" Mephiles said, scratching his ear in thought. "It's that feeling that leaves you helpless, and you want to do something about it, but your senses are screaming at you to either run, hide or bluff…"

Dark frowned at that.

"_I don't feel _fear…" He said through his teeth.

"Everyone does! Even Shadow!" Mephiles folded his arms. "Why are you so cold and distant most of the time? It's like you're trying not to explore that better side of you or something…"

"_I don't have a better side…_"

"I know that you were a bit upset at yourself for trying to twist my arm…"

"_How can you be sure that I wasn't trying to purposely twist it?_" Dark shot back.

"It was the eyes that gave it away…" Mephiles was tired of standing and decided to take his chances and sit down on the couch as well, perching himself on the opposite end as Dark on the arm. Dark was keeping himself to one cushion of the three seat sofa, and had his knees drawn up to his chest, resting his good arm on them so he could rest his head on it. "It's always the eyes that can give anything about anyone away. The way that they're used by the owner is the way that you can distinguish truths…"

"… _I highly doubt that…_"

"At the time you were trying to hurt me, your eyes looked like they did when you've gone mad. They're a bit wider open at that time, and there's a bit of focusing and unfocusing that touches them." Mephiles continued to explain. "After you stopped, they were different. You were shifting them from side to side before and after you tried to look at me. The expression in them softened…"

"… _How can you be sure if I wasn't faking?_" Dark was simply trying to see how sure Mephiles was about this.

"Well, first off, you wouldn't be asking me about my assurance of how much I believe you… Secondly, I'm not sure how to explain it, but I can feel some kind of emotion-aura-vibe from you, and it seems to have gotten more controlled. I don't know if you can feel either mine or the ones I get from you too, but I know that I can empathize with you…"

"_How do you know it's not your emotions?_"

"Because there is a conflict between them. I know how I feel, and what I'm getting from you doesn't even match up to mine…"

"_Whatever…_" Dark mumbled.

"… Look, I know you don't want my help…" Mephiles said finally. "But I have this feeling that I should at least keep trying until we find out what happened. What if doing this actually gives us a hint as to how to beat Iblis? Surely, as his 'brother', you must know something about that…"

"_How many times do I have to repeat myself?_" Dark looked up and growled, baring his teeth slightly. "_I. Don't. Remember._"

"That's what I'm talking about! Doesn't it bother you that there's a chunk of your brain that's either malfunctioning or working into overtime to keep it like that?"

There was a slight shift behind Dark's eyes.

"… _What does it matter?_" His voice shook a bit, as if he was forcing himself to keep from yelling. "_… I'm not good enough for anything… Every time, I've fallen flat on my face. I couldn't beat you, so what makes you think that I could beat that flame? The very circumstances that gave me life are a sin against nature, because one should not attempt to control time… What's more, when I was created, lives were taken because of the backfire of the experiment… I can't redeem myself anyway… I've caused so much harm that I've condemned myself before I even learned otherwise…_"

"D-dark…?" Mephiles said slowly, realizing that Dark had perhaps plunged into a subconscious thought in his brain, and maybe wasn't even aware, since he was hardly blinking, and his eyes were gaining a far off look.

"_And you have the audacity to suggest that I might have turned out different?!_" Dark was hissing now, panting deeply every few or more words, fur and quills prickling. "_I'm not meant to exist! Just being created convicted me, because people died! Not even seconds old, and I already committed murder!_"

Mephiles whimpered under his breath softly as Dark suddenly started to laugh raucously, gasping in between each cackle to take a deep and sometimes wheezy breath, twisting the fingers of his right hand around smaller clumps of quills as he did, pulling them down, rocking back and forth slightly. Mephiles swallowed.

"D-dark… I th-think you need to calm down…" He stammered, bringing his hands up a bit in case Dark tried to jump at him. "P-please, before you have a mental b-breakdown or s-something like that…"

His nose twitched. He picked up a sickeningly familiar scent.

Fixing his attention to where Dark's hand was on his head, he realized that Dark had dug his sharp claws into his scalp (intentionally, or unintentionally, it was hard to say…), and a few trails of blood were finding their way through the maze of fur and quills on his head. This being a head wound, that meant that it was likely to bleed more profusely because of the more numerous blood vessels located there before it would start to clot.

"Dark! Stop it! You're hurting yourself!" Mephiles yelped and reached over to grab his arm and pull his hand away.

Dark made somewhat of a childish whining sound that part of it seemed caught in his throat. His eyes were wandering a bit as he gave no resistance when Mephiles pulled his hand from his head. His jaw was clenched and Mephiles could see light tremors running through him.

Mephiles snapped his fingers in front of Dark's face, but received no response from the now silent hedgehog demon. Blood from the wounds were trailing down the side of his face slowly, his eyes blank and the cat slit pupils dilated to a round shape, meaning his eyes weren't focused at all.

_I think he blacked out…_ Mephiles said to himself slowly, folding his ears back just a little. _Oh, my God, that was a bit scary! I think he cracked for a moment… I need to do something about the bleeding on his head now, it doesn't look like it's going to clot anytime soon, and he already lost some blood when Iblis hurt him. _

Waving a hand above the wound, Mephiles healed it. The trail of blood was still there, but at least it wasn't getting longer.

_He sure looks like a mess now! Some of that blood from earlier matted some of his fur… _

Mephiles felt saddened by this. Dark never seemed like the kind of person to have to go through this.

Suddenly, Dark twitched and started to snicker under his breath. Mephiles watched nervously as it evolved into giggle, then to a chuckle, and finally to a cackle that was ringing in the abyss. Dark slumped against the armrest of the couch of where he was sitting, throwing his head back and laughing like a mad person as he slipped his hand free from Mephiles' and clutched it against his side when he then doubled over from laughing so hard, gasping in between each chortle.

Mephiles inched away a bit, wondering if Dark was going mad again.

Then Dark screamed.

There wasn't really any distinct emotion behind it… he just screamed.

Mephiles folded his ears down a bit to muffle it a little, finding it to be quite loud. Then he tried to calm him down.

"Dark… can you hear me?" He said carefully, not wanting to raise his voice to further agitate him.

Dark's ears perked up a little and swiveled, but Mephiles wasn't sure if he had been heard. Dark had quieted down a little, but had now begun mumbling softly, and his dull eyes were staring above Mephiles just a little.

Mephiles slid off the couch and walked over to the end Dark was shrunk against, and cautiously touched a hand to his forehead, having an odd feeling that maybe Dark still wasn't feeling well.

He pulled his hand away and frowned slowly. Dark's face was hotter than it should have been in this below body temperature area of Mephiles' mind.

"… No wonder he's acting weird… he's probably sick again…" The hedgehog shook his head. "He was still recovering from the poison, and that shoulder is probably still sore…"

Dark shifted his eyes a little in Mephiles' direction, perhaps seeing him but not really letting that register in his mind. He was looking at Mephiles questioningly, either wanting to ask him what was going on, where was he, or judging from the confusion etched on his face: who was he looking at?

Mephiles sighed.

"C'mon, why don't you just rest a little?" He said gently, suggesting it and at the same time urging it with a bit of kindness in the voice.

Dark shrank back a bit, lifting his right hand up to his mouth as if it was going to be a safe barrier.

"You can tell me what's wrong, y'know…" Mephiles tried to ease Dark on his back so he'd start to feel a bit more comfortable.

Dark was still looking at Mephiles as if he was uneasy about him. He was shivering a little and had sweat beading up on his face.

"Dark? Are you okay?" Mephiles said a bit more urgently, realizing that Dark hadn't spoken yet since he calmed down. "Dark? Please, just say something!"

Then Dark said something that shocked Mephiles so much, that he literally fell over, having no wall to lean against.

"… _Wh-who are you..?_"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Mephiles shook his head sharply to clear it, taking it upon himself to smack his head as if to clear his ears.

"Wh-what? Dark, you know who I am!"

"… _Wh-who's Dark..?_" Dark looked frightened. His voice didn't sound as deep and dark as it should have been. "_… Wh-where am I..? Wh-why d-does my shoulder hurt?_" He glanced at his hands and other features he could see, then was shaking a bit more. "_… Why d-do you look like me? A-are you m-my brother?_" His voice rose to a squeak. "_Wh-why are you being nice!? What are you going to do!? What _did _you do?! Why am I aching all over?!_" Dark was clutching his arm tightly, panting deeply and quickly as he and Mephiles both tried to find out what was going on.

What was most unnerving about this was that Dark didn't know his own name right now. He seemed to be mistaking him for Iblis, so perhaps this is a recovered memory, or at least a part of his personality that has been trapped for a long time.

_No offense… but I kinda like the Dark I know better… _ Mephiles shook his head before taking a deep breath. Should he try to explain everything to Dark right now? What if it conflicted and caused problems? Dark seems to have regressed a bit, so he wouldn't remember Mephiles at all right now. Perhaps if he just tried to handle this by explaining that Dark wasn't where he might think he is, and not get into too much detail, he could get him to calm down and perhaps he could fall asleep and lose that fever, and maybe he'll be back to normal when he woke up.

"I'm not your brother…" Mephiles started carefully. "But I'm someone that you'll probably end up knowing very well someday…"

_That doesn't sound too confusing, I hope… _Mephiles thought.

"… _Y-you haven't told me who you are yet…_" Dark hunched his good shoulder a bit as if it was a barrier as well.

"Just call me Mephy…" Mephiles said softly, trying a little to smile. "You have a name, too?"

Dark shook his head slowly.

"… _N-no… h-he just c-calls me Little Brother…_" Dark shifted his eyes away from Mephiles. "_… Brother is more powerful than me… he likes to m-make that his point…_"

"Does he now? How does he do that?" Mephiles sounded like he really wanted to hear what Dark had to say. This seemed to help Dark feel more comfortable.

"… _He says that fire is more powerful than shadows… and because I'm the shadow casted by his flame, I'm not as good as he is… He's always going to be better than me…_"

"Really? Is that all he does?"

Dark shook his head slowly again.

"… _He says that I should have been more like him, but I was just the trash of whatever made us…_" Dark shuddered again. "_… He says the scientists are trying to create some kind of sun thing, and since the sun was made of fire, that makes him better…_"

"That's kinda stupid for him to say!" Mephiles said before he could stop himself. "That's not what happened!"

Dark looked at him confusedly.

"… _H-huh?_"

Mephiles realized that this might create a paradox or something if he told him. But Mephiles just didn't like the idea of the story not being right. He sighed.

"… Look… I don't know what he's been telling you, but the scientists were trying to find a way to control time…"

"… _What does that have to do with the sun thing?_"

"Because they needed to make the sun thing in order to do that." Mephiles tried to keep it simple. "The sun thing was meant to have been a way to find a way to control time…"

Dark stared at him for a long time before narrowing his eyes slowly.

"… _I don't believe you…_" He said quietly. "_… What Brother says is right… that's what he says…_"

_Oh, good lord! Iblis practically had him brainwashed! No wonder he has problems!_

Mephiles blinked.

"Just a question here… who do you think hurt you right now?"

"… _You're the only one around here besides me… so… who else could it have been..?_"

Mephiles twitched.

"I hardly think I even have the mental capacity to even let my mind _think_ that I could do that to anyone…" He muttered, shaking his head.

"… _Then I guess it was me…_" Dark mumbled. "_… Brother tells me I'm unstable compared to him… it's always my fault anyway…_"

"What makes you think _he_ didn't do that to you?" Mephiles asked.

"… _Because it's always my fault… I'm just a worthless attempt at a copy of him, and I'm not good enough… _never _good enough… not good enough… Can't stop him…_"

Mephiles froze. The last bit of that sounded deathly familiar to him.

Dark shuddered and groaned, easing his hand to his head as he doubled over again. His fur and quills prickled again and he clenched his teeth together tightly as he panted heavily.

Mephiles carefully reached a hand out at him, and once it made contact with his back, Dark's eyes snapped wide open before narrowing dangerously.

In a quick second, Mephiles realized that Dark was close enough back to normal. Dark growled and backhanded him, hissing: "_Don't you ever touch me again!_"

"I take it you're back to normal?" Mephiles said as he rubbed a hand on his cheek, which had received the full force of the hit.

"… _What are you talking about? My brain isn't malfunctioning either…_" Dark bared his teeth.

Mephiles almost said "Huh?" before he remembered that the last thing he was talking to Dark about before he had had that memory attack was about the possibility of a brain malfunction.

So that meant that Dark didn't remember anything that had happened after that until now.

Dark was rubbing his hand against the side of his head for a moment before he frowned to himself, pulling his hand away. Glancing at the palm of his right hand, his eyes grew round as his muzzle's color drained a bit from his face, his mouth half open in shock.

"… _M-mephy…_" He whispered. "_… Th-there's blood on the side of my face…_"

"I… I know…" Mephiles folded his ears back a bit.

Dark shifted his eyes up at him.

"_Y-you do? Wh…_"

"I took care of that already…" Mephiles explained. "You're not bleeding anymore there, it's just what was from it…"

"_H-how did I start bleeding there?_" Dark was both confused and disquieted. "_I-I don't remember that at all…_"

Instead of telling Dark that he had done that to himself while he was in an unstable state of mind, Mephiles tried to sugarcoat it all as to not further trouble Dark.

"It's not really important… You blacked out a bit, and I healed it for you…"

"… _I guess that would explain why you're not still sitting on the other end of the couch…_" Dark said slowly. "_… But why would I have blacked out like that?_"

"I... honestly don't know…" Mephiles didn't want to make up a lie about it, so he found something that was still the truth.

There was a silence as Dark stared at the blood on his hand with a sickened expression. Then his ears perked at a familiar sniffling sound. He looked up and saw that Mephiles had the back of his hand pressed against his forehead and he bowed his head a bit. Tears were sliding down his face as well...

"… _Hey, what's wrong?_"

Mephiles just shook his head and wiped his eyes clear, though droplets of tears were clinging to his eyelashes. He looked up and bit his lip before doing something that made Dark freeze.

Taking a deep breath, he said something that struck the back of Dark's mind that the shadow demon gasped softly as something was almost in reach before slipping away.

"… I know this won't make any sense to you right now, Dark…" Mephiles closed his eyes again. "But it wasn't your fault… and… you're not trash…"

Dark's eyes rounded again, and before could ask what it meant… Mephiles hit the pressure point and disappeared…

* * *

Some notes:

* Instinct was originally going to be called "Feral", but he just didn't seem to be psycho enough ^^

* That other side of Dark is from before Solaris is split. So that means he wasn't given a name yet, and niether was Iblis. He wouldn't have known Mephiles at all then, and as you can tell, Iblis had pretty much driven it into Dark's mind that Dark is lower than him and has him tricked into believing that he causes everything that happens to himself. Dark is much younger at that time, and had no reason to distrust Iblis at the time because the two of them were still Solaris, just two halves. Makes sense?

* That thing that Dark had said that caught Mephiles' attention before Dark shifted back to normal is similar to what Mephiles had uttered when he went feral back in "Relapse". I should note that it wasn't Mephiles that was really saying it, as that was suggested ;P


	21. Interrogate

Aw, geez. I didn't mean for all of you to wait this long for this chapter. I kinda got stuck for a while on on part... and my cousin keeps wanting me to watch some shows with him that happen nearly everyday. ^_^;

So I tried to make this one good length and started to push it to where they get back on their Emerald hunt.

Hope this one is good...

* * *

Dark was confused without a doubt for two reasons. What did Mephiles mean by that and why did it affect him at all?

Gently prodding his arm at the shoulder, he was briefly pleased to see that it wasn't flaring up in pain as easily, so that meant that it was nearly finished healing. He considered that he might also have accelerated healing like Mephiles, and perhaps because Mephiles used his powers to heal the arm slightly, that merely sped up the process.

Steering his thoughts back to what Mephiles had said, he had also been a bit surprised that Mephiles had been crying like that. He was so used to the loud wailing sobs that Mephiles often never tried to hold back, that this type was very unusual to him. Mephiles seemed like he was trying to hide it… or what he was so upset about at least.

Which brought Dark to another set of thoughts: Why did he black out like that? Why had he been bleeding from his head? Why did Mephiles quickly tell him that he healed it, and didn't bother to tell him what exactly happened? Did something happen that he was not aware of?

Something just didn't add up to him. Mephiles told him that he must have blacked out from bleeding, but he was not aware of if he had been bleeding or not.

Dark glanced at his right hand and took in all the details he might have missed that were clues on it.

There was blood on his palm from rubbing his hand to his face… but there was blood on the fingertips as well…

Strange…

Like Mephiles, Dark's claws were simply too sharp from being crystal to have much contact with his own skin, so he often made sure the tips of the fingers were kept away from it so he didn't cut himself by accident.

But, if that was his rule of thumb… then why was there blood on the claws on his right hand?

Wait…

Right hand…

Right side of face…

He didn't…

Did he?

Grabbing a few tissues, knowing the blood had yet to coagulate, he pressed the unfolded tissues to the side of his head, wanting to see the trail marks of the blood.

After a few seconds, he pulled it away and examined the trails.

Five zigzags that came together at a few points, some trails thicker than the others…

Five…

Dark shook his head and scoffed nervously.

"_Noooo…_" He half laughed, as if mocking the thought of it. "_I couldn't have… I would have known if I did… Right?_"

The last word came out a bit higher pitched than his normally deeper voice. He shook his head quickly.

"_I'm getting paranoid being stuck in here…_" He concluded with another shake of the head."_I do hope Mephy hasn't forgotten that he still needs to find the other four Emeralds… though I can understand if that slipped his mind for a moment… what with being poisoned and all…_"

He had no idea why he was talking out loud so much, and more over, why he was speaking his thoughts out loud as they came to him, not taking any time to think them through.

"_I must be getting paranoid… that's all…_" He told himself.

He glanced at his left arm and flexed his fingers for a moment, pleased to find that doing so did not cause as much discomfort as it had earlier. He concluded that he'd probably have full use of his arm in several hours… however long that translated in here. From what he could tell, time passed quite differently in Mephiles' mind compared to his own. While his was pretty much real time, Mephiles' seemed to vary in conversion, sometimes taking too long, and sometimes not too long at all. He figured that because Mephiles had yet to shape the set up of his mind, it was an exception to most of the rules, such as time constraint and damage read outs, as in because there was no real walls and ground, nothing could really be destroyed and cause mental and physical damage to Mephiles.

"_Perhaps I should have been more in control of myself, then I might not be in this predicament…_" Dark contemplated carefully, realizing once again that his rage fit he had in his mind had caused damage to himself as well.

It all seemed linked to his nasty temper.

Because he had destroyed a good majority of his visual representation of his mind, he was suffering for all sorts of brain related "malfunctions". He was blacking out, having trouble not trailing off, memory problems and apparent relapses, and a host of other things he didn't feel like mentioning.

Because of his likeliness to snap to a rage, he had nearly costed himself the only person that was actually willing to help him. But he couldn't help it… when he was worked up into a frenzy, he lost any sense of reasoning and was likely to do what comes to mind without thinking about it. It was either that or let it and his Chaos Aura come to a boil and result in him truly becoming a mindless beast even for a moment as his brain wiped clean while he became an unruly creature…

As much as the idea of that kind of power tempted him… he preferred to have complete and total control on his brain, body and powers. As long as he could be aware… he would be able to keep himself in check.

He rarely lost complete control out of the slight fear of what could happen to him. He knew that like Shadow, he produced more Chaos Energy than his body could output at rest. But unlike Shadow, he had no way to suppress it harmlessly or channel it into something beneficial to him, like the healing powers of Mephiles or the Energy Rings on Shadow's wrists and ankles. And his Chaos Aura was an uncommon but not rare type that was controlled by a type of emotion. His control was his anger.

Depending on the intensity of that emotion, the output and production would vary. It took a long time to produce most of it, but the energy that has already been stored would release quickly, and it's effects would cause Dark's fury to escalate, letting it all loose at once as his body tries to compensate for that.

That was the cause of his normal black outs that lasted up to a few minutes… not these new ones that seemed to last longer.

At these times, he was vaguely aware of what was really going on, but because they lasted so shortly, he could easily keep track and seem like it didn't happen at all.

Theses were the times his fur and quills would start to prickle and stand on end as his eyes glowed. He'd pant and snarl, bear his teeth and hiss threats.

That's just how he was… and he couldn't change it.

He was a creature of anger and darkness. He wanted to be more powerful so that he could prove he was better. He couldn't handle second place, nor having a position of weakness.

He was not weak. He would never be a weakling. He was half of a time manipulator…

A scientifically created copy of a time manipulator, that was…

But he wasn't a fake! He was a living, breathing, thinking individual that felt the need to be a step above everything… especially three particular beings. Those three above all…

Funny… the number used to be two… When did Iblis work his way into the equation?

Then his thoughts came to that.

There was something about Iblis that was making Dark's body and instincts work against his mind. He had found himself victim to all sorts of new and unnerving reactions and functions.

His heart had raced enough for Dark to be aware that it was beating that fast.

His legs had lost their ability to support his weight, making him slide to the ground as he was now forced to look up to keep eye contract with his brother.

His body had trembled, the greatest visual that told Iblis that Dark was startled, if not frightened.

His fur had become damp with sweat as if to confirm that.

His lungs had decided to work overtime, making him pant and wheeze as he tried to return it to a steady rhythm.

His muscles had twitched and spasmed, giving away his uneasiness that felt around Iblis.

His mouth had gone dry, making his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth and make words harder to form coherently.

His throat had constricted painfully, making it hard to breathe right.

Every nerve in his body had screamed at him to run and put as much distance between them as he could.

And he didn't know why. What was it about Iblis that was so bad that it was upsetting the balance of Dark's senses?

"_I told myself I wasn't going to worry about that…_" Dark huffed at himself, annoyed that he had let his thoughts run wild for a while. "_Whatever's in the past is in the past, and it's not that important because it's happened, done and set in stone. What's important right now is focusing on the present and making sure that we keep those Emeralds from Iblis so that we don't lose in the future. We've already lost a few days time, but Brother seems to be sticking close, so I doubt he knows where to find the last four._"

Dark reached his hand to the ground and picked up his notebook, then paused, contemplating as to whether or not he should open it to read it.

"_There can't possibly be anything more that could be just as confusing and rattling as what I've found out in the past week alone…_" He snorted and shook his head. "_So apparently I'm not a demon, and I'm afraid of my brother… there's nothing that can top that right now…_"

And with that, he flipped the cover back and started reading the first page, which had now arranged itself like a story of some kind in Dark's printed handwriting. The notes that usually littered the margins were not present this time, meaning that the thoughts were beginning to sort out better and make themselves more understandable.

"_So Mephy's theory seems to be plausible…_" He said slowly. "_I just wish that I hadn't had that relapse at the time he was explaining so I could have heard the rest of it…_"

Plausible. Meaning possible, but still a window for failure of the theory.

On one end of the scale, he had Mephiles' theory. On the other end… there was what he was trying to force to be true out of knowledge of possible severe consequences if he was wrong.

Though tempting that was possible for Dark to have been misunderstood this whole time, he knew that he had caused enough problems and troubles with Mephiles alone that it was going to be very tough for him to right all that. Not that he was willing to admit that he was wrong, oh no! He just didn't want to have to acknowledge his ignorance. Not that he was admitting that he was ignorant, that is… he just didn't like being wrong.

He snapped the notebook shut and tossed it aside, deciding that he had had just about enough from it for now. He was getting another headache again anyway, and he didn't need anything confusing fueling it any more than it was.

Deciding that since he had nothing else to do, and estimating that the time was about nighttime anyway, he slid down the couch into a more comfortable position, taking care not to put any weight into his hurt arm.

Not much into attempting to fall asleep again did Mephiles' voice interrupt his train of thought.

_Dark? Are you still awake?_

"… _Unfortunately… yes…_" He said levelly, a little annoyed at not being left alone for now. "_What is it _this_ time?_"

_Uh… Well… everyone else is asleep… and I don't really feel like falling asleep right now…_

"_That's a bit of a laugh, since you're the one that seems to fall asleep anywhere…_"

_I know… I just… don't want to right now…_

"_Any particular reason why?_" Dark really didn't care, but he knew Mephiles would keep talking either way, so it was better to keep the conversation moving, rather than just stop at one subject.

_I'm getting tired of waking up there. I haven't really fallen _asleep _sleep since you came back…_

"_I don't see the problem there… You still get rested… Right?_"

_Well, yeah… but I'd like to not have to have a time period to wait before I really wake up. If I fall asleep for real, then there's that chance that I won't have to think for a good solid ten hours at the most._

"_And then there's that chance you have a nightmare or something like that…_" Dark countered.

_Not like it really matters to you…_

"_On the contrary… Because of my placement here… the subconscious of your mind…_" Dark rolled his eyes. "_I can end up getting glimpses of what goes on in that fuzzy little head of yours. And good Lord… your thoughts are so disorganized! Your dreams often make no sense!_"

_They're not supposed to…_ Mephiles sighed as if he was annoyed that he had to explain this apparently simple thing to such a brilliant mind such as Dark's. _It's simply a glimpse into the current thoughts that are running through my head. If I was upset or scared before I fell asleep, then the thoughts will be related to it. Likewise, if I'm not upset or scared, I won't have any problems at all…_

"_That's why _I _never dream…_" Dark said, sounding almost proud of himself.

_I wouldn't be so sure… _

"_Why?_" Dark raised an eyebrow.

_Everyone does. In fact, only a small percentage is remembered. _

"_You have no proof if I do or not. Remember… I'm not naturally created. I'm a science project gone wrong._" Something about that last part seemed a bit hissed out.

_Weeeeelllll… _Mephiles dragged it out as if to either pause to decide the way to word it or to think of a good reason. _You definitely have REM sleep. There's that whole eyelid twitch and stuff._

"_So, I might have something in common with people after all. Nice to know I'm not a misfit… That's sarcasm, by the way…_"

_I figured that. Your voice has that tone…_

"_You have learned well…_" Dark teased. "_Anyway, you do remember that you still need to find the next four Emeralds right? Stop wasting time and get going as soon as possible._"

_There's a bit of a snag. We can't go until Shadow and I are officially released._

"_And what's stopping you?_"

_Well, because of you taking that poison from me, I recovered perhaps the quickest ever seen from such a dose. It perplexes the doctors. _

"_It was either that, or let you be in a coma with a high fever and all kinds of hallucinations plaguing your unconscious mind. Like I said, you're not the only one who sees what goes on in here…_"

_How do you know all this stuff anyway? You've hardly had time to research, and I know that I don't know it if you need to tell me…_

"_Mephiles… you're not the only one with a Seeing ability…_" Dark said as if he thought Mephiles knew already. But it was obvious that he didn't.

_Wait… so you can See things too?_

"_To an extent. You can view the alternate timelines and outcomes in your dreams and that yellow Emerald allows you to see elsewhere in present time. But mine is entirely different._"

_Such as..?_

Dark heaved a sigh, as if he had explained this before, but he knew full well he hadn't.

"_Every time a situation happens where there is more than one possible outcome…_" He started, tugging at a quill on his head out of boredom. "_It flashes through my mind each one and what could happen based on my choice if I choose to allow it run through my head. In this case, I saw several outcomes, one resulting in your death from that overdose if nothing was to be done at all, a few in which you were in a coma for various lengths of time depending on how much I removed, as well as your symptoms at various levels, and a few outcomes involving my malaise. Worst case scenario is you die, I end up dying, Iblis get the Emeralds and everyone else dies._"

_So you helped me because… you were thinking of everyone else..?_

"_I didn't want to die. How hard is that for you to understand? I can't do anything if I'm dead. Get it?_"

_That's what you say… but you didn't say that the only thing about the worse case scenario is that _you _die. You included everyone else…_

"_Oh, would you just shut up?_" Dark snapped. "_I'd like to go to sleep now; I still have a headache from that poison._"

_Geeze… cranky much?_

"_Now see… you wouldn't be saying this out loud if we were face to face…_" Dark muttered, shaking his head.

_Maybe not… You might try to hurt me…_

"_Not if you stop prying and leave me alone right now!_" Dark snapped. "_Go to sleep!_"

_And what if I end up back there?_

"_I don't care… it's not my problem…_"

In a few minutes, Mephiles was back anyway. Dark heaved a sigh through his teeth and glared.

"_I'm getting reeeeaaal tired of this…_" Dark would have folded his arms if the left one wasn't still in the sling.

"How's that arm doing? It doesn't look as bad now…" Mephiles ignored the sarcasm.

"_Y'know something? I really want you to answer this: Why do you care?_" Dark said, frowning as he narrowed his eyes. "_Why now? I'm sure if it was a month ago, you would have been laughing along with Shadow about that. And after all that negative response you've been getting from me… well, if it was the other way around, I would have just said 'Forget it'…_"

"We've been through this, Dark…" Mephiles shook his head as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I told you that I don't enjoy seeing anyone get hurt, regardless of who it is. That's just not me."

"_After all that I've done to you? That doesn't sound very smart to me…_"

"Good people think differently. They put others first, and will try to help." Mephiles explained. "They don't always get something in return, or it might even backlash, but it's just what they do."

"_So why help _me?" Dark raised an eyebrow. "_I'm not a good person…_"

"But you're also not bad either…"

Dark was confused.

"_I don't get it…_" He shook his head. "_I only like benefiting myself… I hardly ever help out… I've caused you more injuries in a short amount of time more than some get in a year or more… I have no real purpose, and I've focused most of it into causing harm…_"

"Well, true…" Mephiles said a bit nervously, as if Dark might lash out at him for saying that. "And you have the nastiest temper I've ever seen… but do you still call yourself bad after helping me in that avalanche? Or taking that poison? Or warning me about Iblis? The weird thing is… you've helped… but you don't want to _be _helped."

"_That's because you're trying to help me with something I don't want help with…_"

"But, why? Why don't you want help with it?" Mephiles said almost desperately. "I've had my own experience with lost memories, even if it is just recently. And I can tell, I can see it, that you don't fully understand yourself…"

"_I understand enough to get by…_" Dark adopted his familiar growl again.

"You're like an underachiever that is capable of doing much more, but you're either afraid of failure, or of not getting the answer you want…"

Dark rounded his eyes a fraction before giving his usual glare.

"_I don't even know what failure feels likes…_"

"Okay, I _know _that's a lie…" Mephiles shook his head. "You've never beaten me… that's solid proof that you've tasted failure. You know that as well as I do…"

"_How do you know that?_" Dark usual facade faltered for a moment. "_I never told you that…_"

"Uh… oops?" Mephiles realized that and took a step back as Dark got off the couch to take a step towards him, a somewhat unreadable expression on his face.

Then he clenched his teeth and frowned again.

"_What exactly are you keeping from me?_" He growled. "_The last time you left, you were trying to hide something, and I couldn't find what. I don't know what it meant, other than it pulled at something in my brain. And your story about the blood on the side of my face doesn't add up at all. I checked, it was from my own claws!_" He raised his voice a bit.

Mephiles took another step back, shifting his eyes from side to side anxiously. He should have known that Dark was smart enough to put two and two together to make something other than four and it actually work.

"_Now I demand that you tell me what exactly happened after I… 'blacked out'!_" He airquoted with his right hand. "_Because there's my dried blood on the side of my face and on my claws that I _know _I didn't put there! Start. Explaining. Now._" At the last word, he bared his teeth as he clenched his right hand into a fist.

Mephiles was caught. There was no way to side track this now. He folded his ears back and held his breath for a moment.

"_Well? Start talking!_"

He exhaled.

"Oh… _where_ do I begin..?" He said slowly, shaking his head as he eased a hand to his forehead. "C-can I sit down first? I'm getting tired of standing…"

He received only a sharp stare, so he took it upon himself to sit down on the couch anyway, Dark not taking his eyes off him once.

"You had something like a mental breakdown or something earlier…" He began, shifting his eyes up to stare back at Dark. "I dunno for sure, but you were acting really weird… or… weirder than normal…"

"_Define…_" Dark said edgily.

"Well, uh… it started out that you were getting really mad at me for suggesting that there might have been a misunderstanding…" Mephiles shook his head lightly and suddenly took an interest into staring at his feet. "Like, _real _mad. Your eyes shifted a bit, and you were steadily raising your voice as you went on about how there was no way to make up for all the bad you've done…"

"_And just how does that have to do with the blood on the side of my face?_" Dark was getting impatient.

"I'm getting to that. Then you started laughing. Not like you're usual laugh… more like a complete meltdown laugh. It was loud… and a bit scary… especially after I noticed that you had clamped your hand to your head and was digging your claws into it… like, deep…"

He paused, hoping to have to stop there. But Dark wasn't satisfied.

"_Go on._"

Mephiles sighed. He didn't want to have to lie again, so he just told him everything else.

"After I pulled your hand away and healed the wound, you spaced out before laughing again, this time gradually. First a snicker, then a giggle, which turned into a chuckle… and then you were cackling like a mad person, laughing a bit too hard that you had to gasp a bit. Then you screamed for no reason at all before you started shaking…"

"_And then I came to?_"

"No… not yet…" Mephiles shook his head. "This is the most interesting part. There was a resurface of a younger you for about five minutes."

Dark's eyes were rounded completely for a few seconds before relaxing.

"_How are you so sure?_"

"Well, you didn't have a name yet and said that Iblis calls you 'Little Brother'. You seemed downright afraid of him, and you didn't know me at all, so I assume that that was you when you and Iblis were still Solaris…"

"_What was I like?_"

"… D-different…"

"_How so?_"

"You… were… uh… kidlike… very startled, and you kept telling me about how Iblis was better than you because he said so and all. He had you thinking it was true…"

"_That insignificant spark… No wonder his presence puts me at unease… it's already hardwired into my brain…_" Dark whispered almost inaudibly as he brought his hand to his face and caught himself by the chin in thought. Mephiles strained his ears to hear him more clearly. "_He knows that… and he's using that to his advantage with me… that's clever of him… Very, very clever…_"

"Are you saying that he's done that purposely to make it easier to get by you?"

"_I dunno… I can't be sure of that… it could just be that he sees that it's beneficial to him now as well…_"

Mephiles could see that Dark was uneasy. Not so much as see, per se, but he could feel the emotion that Dark was giving off, even if Dark wasn't letting himself show it.

"… You're scared… aren't you?" Mephiles said slowly. Dark jumped a bit and looked up, letting his eyebrows knit in confusion before shaking his head roughly. "Dark, stop it. I can sense it."

"_I'm not scared. I never feel fear._" Dark stated for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"It was a lie then…" Mephiles shook his head and folded his arms. "And it's a lie now. It's okay if this whole problem is evoking something you're not familiar with… I won't think any less or any more of you from that."

"_I don't do fear._" Dark stuck his nose in the air with a "_hmmph!_".

"Then what was that when we saw that memory with Solaris?"

Dark's eyes shot wide open for a moment before narrowing as he turned his attention back to Mephiles.

"_I told you to forget about it!_" Dark hissed, puffing his quills and fur out. "_Stop bringing it-_AUGH!"

Dark had clamped his right hand to his head, having experienced a sudden and unexplained headache that had arisen out of the blue. Teeth set and eyes squeezed shut in an expression of utmost pain, the shadow creature eased himself to the ground before Mephiles caught him under his uninjured arm and led him back to the couch, asking him if he was alright.

"Dark?! You didn't get mad did you? Iblis might be draining from you if you did!"

"_No joke! Ya think!?_" Dark snapped, jerking his arm free and shoving Mephiles away forcefully. "_How many times do I have to tell you to keep your hands off me?!_"

"Well, how do you- What other- Well if you were really hurt, what am I supposed to do then?" Mephiles sputtered as he tried to regain his balance from being pushed. After a few arm flails, he leaned forward just a bit and stopped himself from falling over. "I'm sorry, but that's the only way I know how to help…"

"_Stop helping me! I _told_ you what I needed done! I don't _need_ anything else! You're giving me a migraine!_" Dark forced an eye open to send a glare at the hedgehog, who backed away a little more. "_You are forgetting how much we both hate each other! We are enemies, and nothing is going to change that when this is over! When it is, we'll go back to what we've been doing for years, and that's it!_"

"Do we have to? I'm _tired _of it!" Mephiles half whined, telling the truth. "Every time we've fought, not one of us really wins. We both die one way or another, and I end up hurt really badly. Then after I recover, you always come back and the same old thing starts up again!"

"_Not this time!_"

"You still came back, and I've still been hurt!" The hedgehog shook his head. "Shadow was hurt too! I'm thankful that Rouge hasn't been pulled into it, but what's to say that she's not the next target Iblis goes for? What about Krystal and Sharpe? Kai? Rae and Jak? What about Dr. Thizon? Maybe Iblis'll go after everyone I meet!"

"_It's not my fault what Brother does…_"

"But he only ended up in this plane because you tried to form with him to make Solaris, but he realized he was stronger than you!" Mephiles raised his voice, pouring out everything that was on his mind that he had merely taken in as it happened and not once questioned it before. "It's because of _you _this is happening to all of us! It's because of you're obsession to get rid of me and Shadow that you brought this upon yourself! And now, you _don't_ want to get rid of me or Shadow! I don't get you! I don't! I don't! I don't! I don't! I don't! _I don't!_"

Halfway through that, he was stomping his foot on the ground, on a borderline tantrum, not knowing what else to do.

Considering the factors of how much of this he had been taking, what's been happening, how much of nearly everything had blown up in his face, piling up with nearly every other factor that had been added… it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

Dark watched mutely as Mephiles' Chaos Aura erupted in purple flames of energy around the hedgehog as his eyes gained a purple glow to them as he continued to throw a tantrum, screaming out nearly everything that came to mind.

During this, Dark took a moment to check his arm and was pleased to find that aside from a little bit of soreness, he could use it much more freely now. That was good… he was tired of having only one hand to use.

Removing the makeshift sling, he got up from the couch calmly and walked over to where Mephiles was, caught him by both of his shoulders, spun him to where the two were face-to-face and gave him an intense stare, which made Mephiles stop venting and stare back. Not as intensely, though.

"_Stop that… do you have any idea how shrill you sound when you're spouting nonsense?_" Dark said lowly but clearly, making it quite evident that Mephiles' actions had tried his nerves a bit too much. "_I'll give you a hint: It's downright grating on my senses… I can almost feel it vibrate the very fibers of my being. Stop it. NOW._"

"I see you have full use of your arm…"

"_I have enough use to do what I want to._" Dark growled, letting go of Mephiles. "_Now, really. I strongly advise that you and your friends get out of that hospital and get started finding the next four Emeralds._"

"One problem… I don't know where they could be." Mephiles answered truthfully.

"_You're clever enough to find out._" Dark said flatly, folding his arms. "_If the yellow Emerald led you to the aqua one… then perhaps it can aid you with the rest._"

"But the last time, it was very vague. I didn't even know what that white stuff was. Which was snow, by the way, it's-"

"_I know what snow is, you stupid little hedgehog!_" Dark snapped, having lost his patience quite quickly, most likely because Mephiles was convinced that he was going to get a chance to educate Dark in something.

"You just called me 'clever' not even half a minute ago…"

"_I'll call you what I want!_" Dark barked before flinching. He paused, inhaled deeply to take a moment to cool down before continuing. "_Stop wasting time and get going. I have no idea how much longer Brother is willing to wait and he may just decide to go after the rest on his own…_"

"Yikes, that's a scary thought…" Mephiles shivered slightly. "Y'know… why is it that bad people seem to need only on Emerald to get what they want? Hasn't there ever been anybody that didn't get a power boost or upgrade with just one?"

"_What are you asking me for? How the heck should I know?_"

"I dunno… I was just wondering…" Mephiles turned his gaze to the ground. "Can you hit me in the back of the head this time? I'm getting tired of the other pressure point… and a good knock to the head works as well."

"_Sure, why not?_"

"One more thing… how come I haven't gotten any brain damage from all the ti-"

Dark didn't let him finish. He was a bit too eager to use his left arm.

* * *

Mephiles woke up in the hospital room again, finding it to be still dark, Rouge and Shadow still asleep as well.

The hedgehog sighed. He was hoping it was daylight so they could get started again.

Not tired enough to try to fall asleep for real again, Mephiles got off the bed to find the backpack that had the yellow Emerald in it. Once he did, he hesitated in grabbing, wary of what might happen when he did. The fact that he knew that if either Shadow or Rouge woke up to find him in a trancelike state for who knows how long would no doubt startle them.

Fingers hovering above it, he changed his mind and made a grab for a plush bean filled dog that he had nearly forgotten that he had packed. Originally, he wanted to cram his pillow into the bag, but Shadow persuaded him otherwise, claiming that the pillow would take up much needed space. Mephiles argued that it was lightweight, and he was starting to grow fond of it after Sharpe had destroyed the first one, but Shadow eventually convinced him to bring something smaller.

Taking the toy back to the bed that he had been sleeping on, he flopped back on it and began toying at the ears idly, wondering how Krystal and Sharpe were doing. He hadn't seen them in over a week, and he had never been separated from them that long anytime before. But he knew that he had made a good decision leaving them behind, knowing that Iblis might have tried to hurt them. After all, Mephiles had been attacked at least a few times in the mere timeframe of a few days.

The hedgehog rolled over on his side, continuing his thought train until it came to a stop at the station with no passengers on board. In other words… he was tired of thinking for now.

_What if I just stop thinking and try to fall asleep that way? I just want to fall asleep for real right now…_

It took a moment before Mephiles tried his new method, finding himself to be experiencing an unexplainable sensation of dread about something. He quickly pushed that aside, determining that it was most likely because of the situation at hand and perhaps his hedgehog instincts were a deciding factor as well.

He would have been pleased to find that his new method worked… if his brain was conscious enough to try to.

* * *

Whatever amount of time passed, and Mephiles found that the sun was shining through the shades on the window and directly into his face.

Reaching his hand towards his head while still half asleep, he swiped the pillow he was resting his head on out from underneath it and pulled it over his eyes.

Mephiles just didn't like mornings. Or rather, he didn't like how it had a tendency to blind you first thing you wake up to.

"You might as well get up, it's after ten already." He heard Shadow tell him.

His ears lifted up.

"… Eh? It is?" Mephiles pulled the pillow off and lifted his head, looking somewhat confused as much as he was half asleep.

"Give or take a half an hour…" Shadow shrugged while getting his shoes on.

Mephiles blinked and propped himself up on one arm, starting to wake up a bit more.

"Are we going to leave today, or something?" The crystal hedgehog had taken note about Shadow putting on his hoverskates. "We've been here for _days…_"

"That's because they haven't released the two of you…" Rouge reminded him.

"I'm well aware of that, Rouge…" Shadow nodded, tugging a glove over his hand by the cuff. "But we also need to bear in mind that of the seven Emeralds we need, we only have three. That's four others that Iblis will want to get. Where are the backpacks?"

"I pushed them under your bed, Shadow." Mephiles said, sliding off the bed. "But we still don't know where to find the next one…"

"We'll figure it out once we get out of here…"

"Oh, yes please. I really don't like it here…" The crystal hedgehog nodded. "I've ended up here twice, and Iblis attack me here, and these doctors don't seem to know what to make of me and my… oddness…" Mephiles had to pause for a moment to determine a good enough word to sum it up. "Oddness" seemed like an appropriate word. To the point, and not at all harsh. "I'd like to get out of here before someone decides that I'd make a great science project."

"What makes you think that's going to happen?" Rouge looked up while retrieving the backpacks.

"I dunno. I just know that they think I'm unusual. I mean, surviving getting frozen in snow without getting frostbitten because of my crystals…" Mephiles began listing off things. "Then there was that melting into mist to hide from Iblis. And then the fact that the only thing that was scorched was my fur. And surviving a dose of poisoning that would have lapsed me into a coma, and had the potential to kill me, moreover that I recovered in a couple of hours. And that's just what they know right now…"

"They can't keep you here…" Shadow shook his head. "They don't have the right…"

Mephiles laughed nervously.

"I'm sorry… I'm probably just worrying about nothing again…" He shook his head with a weak attempt at a smile.

But still… that little bit of dread that was in the back of his mind returned… And he still felt uneasy…

* * *

Alright... lets hope that they can get out of that hospital and continue thier quest. I hope Mephiles' unease doesn't turn out to mean anything...


	22. It's Totally Worth A Couple Of Rings

Oh, my god... it lives!

I did not mean to take this long either, but I lost a bit of track when working of some future chapters, which will now be done lone before release, so I could end up shelling them out one after another when the story reaches that point.

This chapter is a bit ore lighthearted than the rest of the story, since we needed a break from all that, and this is the first time I've crossed a Nintendo element with Sega. ^^

Enjoy...

* * *

Much to Mephiles' relief, nothing happened within the moments of leaving the hospital that would have been his reason for his unease. He breathed out slowly and forced a laugh to show that he was pleased enough about it, but being the constant worrywart that he was, he figured it was best to stay on his toes.

"Do you realize that we haven't had any sign of Iblis since Dark was attacked?" He said as they exited for what they hoped would be the last time through those doors. "Should that be a cause for alarm? That can't be good if he's staying out of sight… he might be planning something really bad…"

"Just be glad that he hasn't attacked you every day…" Shadow waved his hand halfheartedly as he glanced into his pack. Then he remembered: "Meph? The yellow one is in your pack, right?"

"Of course. You didn't want me carrying any of the other two." Mephiles blinked. "Why?"

"It seems like the only way we can do this is let you try to find the next ones by using it." The hybrid hedgehog looked up. "I'm not too keen on that idea much, considering all the possible draw backs. But if Rouge and I watch you closely, I'm sure we won't have a problem."

"Oh, so _now_ you want me to use it?" Mephiles couldn't help but laugh a little. "I thought you thought it was too dangerous…"

"If you say so, then maybe-"

"What are ya, nuts? If it's the only way we know right now, I'm willing to." Mephiles dug the Emerald out of his backpack, watching its sheer brilliance shine in the light of the sun. This was by far his most favorite as far as color went. He had heard before that gems of this color were called "Citrine", which he liked the name of that. It made him think of fruits like oranges and lemons, and the color was comparable to a golden shade. All the same, the color fascinated him more than what it could do.

Taking a breath, he closed his eyes and tried to use it, but this time, it was fainter of an effect than the last time. His brain was receiving information about it, but hardly any images to be able to make it easier.

"… Something… about a yellow creature…" He was able to voice this time, so he wasn't in a trance so much as the last time. "It's… Uh, it's small… Teeth… Buck teeth… Long ears… Kind of a sleepy look to the eyes… and something about… Mips. That's the name, I think…"

"So much for finding a place… you found a person." Shadow shook his head. "More specifically, a rabbit or something of the sort..."

"Maybe that thing has the Emerald?"

"We can't do much if we don't know where to find them." Rouge said. "Anything about a place of any kind?"

"None that come to mind at the moment…" Mephiles shifted the now shimmering Emerald in his hands before putting it back in the pack. "There has to be hundreds of rabbits around here… and I'm not even sure if we can find it around here."

"Let's just get out of here…" Shadow said. "I'm getting tired of seeing Station Square. We've been here for way too long."

"Ditto!" Mephiles agreed, nodding his head fast enough to make the crystal ends of his quills clatter against each other. "Where do we go now?"

"Not a clue…" Shadow shrugged, having looked at the Emerald Radar after remembering that they still had an active one (The other one had suffered a bit of damage back at Ice Cap, having been more exposed to the cold temperatures than the other, and therefore the inner workings had froze over and shattered once it had been dropped in their haste to find Mephiles after the avalanche.). "The fourth Emerald is out of range, and all I see is the three we already have…"

"Where do you normally find the Emeralds? Is there usually a pattern?" Mephiles said hopefully.

"Not a clear one… but I've seen them at beaches, snow areas like where we found one, ancient places… even in some crazy parallel zones…" Shadow thought for a moment.

"Oh, I remember that!" Rouge laughed. "We had to collect power spheres and dodge landmines being thrown by some Chaos in a balloon! You ran right into one of those…"

"It looked just like that red power sphere…" Shadow folded his arms as he tried to defend his little blunder there as Mephiles snickered a bit. "Do you honestly think that while I'm running at hundreds of miles per hour that I have enough time to tell them apart?"

"And then you fell forward, and skidded down the tunnel on your face for a bit." Rouge continued what she had been saying, as if Shadow hadn't spoken at all.

The mental image Mephiles got from such a situation made him laugh, easily pushing that dread he been feeling earlier to the back of his mind, locking it away from thoughts.

"Anyway…" Shadow said. "Let's get out of here…"

"We're not taking the train, are we?" Mephiles let his laughter die when he remembered about how sick he might get if they did.

"It's the fastest way out of here," Shadow knew the reason for Mephiles' question. "Otherwise, we'd have to walk, but Station Square is one of the bigger cities around. And we'd probably get lost."

"We don't even have any idea where to go next…"

"No… but I was thinking we'd just go to the next city or something to try to shake off Iblis for a while."

"What I really want to know is…" Mephiles said slowly, taking some time to think about what he wanted to say. "How is Iblis staying so close, but we don't see him until he shows himself? Another me doppelganger wouldn't be too easy to miss, considering that I myself look very unusual for even a Hedgehog…" Mephiles idly reached a hand up to a crystal tipped quill clump and flicked it with his crystal claws, earning a **CHINK **sound as audio and visual reference. "I mean, at least fourteen percent of me is covered with shiny blue rock that seems to have nerve endings to it on what isn't quill. Unless, of course, he's either taking another form, or is hiding as his base form… but that would be easier to find than Dark's and mine, since fire can't hide as well as shade…"

It was hours before they arrived in another city, which was Central City.

"Creative with the names, are we?" Mephiles muttered after nearly tripping off the train, trying to regain his equilibrium, which had been thrown out of whack on the train ride.

"I don't see what you mean…" Shadow shook his head, oblivious to the lack of creativity that went into major city naming around here. "Well… no sign of any Emeralds here that I can see… not that I can see it, really…"

"Can we really be sure it's here?" Rogue said. "Should we check the radar?"

Shadow dug it out of the backpack and flipped the switch on. A faint beep was heard.

"I think that's just the ones we have, but… wait… aw no!" Shadow shook it a few times while smacking it. "I don't believe it! The battery just died!"

"Well, that's a bit of a bad thing…" Mephiles said. "What kind does it take?"

"Y'know those hearing aid kind?"

"The expensive ones?"

"Yeah…"

"Oooh… We don't have any of those…" Mephiles shook his head as he dug through his backpack. "We got double 'Ehs' for the flashlight, triples for your music player and it's speakers and a nine volt for that alarm clock… but none of those hearing aid kinds…"

"Of course, we have everything else BUT it…"

"Not really… we don't have a car battery in there… or lithium, or those tiny camera ones…"

Not seeing that Shadow was a little peeved, Mephiles had his attention directed to another thing.

"Can we get something to eat? It's been hours…"

This turned out to be a pretty well and unbeknownst tactic, since Shadow had time to cool down, and a conflict was avoided. After all, how can you be mad at some kid who was looking forward into biting into his oatmeal cookie after his sandwich was done?

"So, how are we going to find the Emeralds if the radar's busted?"

"We might be able to use the Emeralds we have to find them…" Rouge said.

"How?" Mephiles pulled a piece of cheese out of the sandwich and set it aside.

"Something about a type of signature of Chaos Energy they give off when in close proximity or something like that…"

"Odd…"

Nearly half an hour later, the trio returned to the search, having nothing more to rely on other than a hint, a dead radar, and Mephiles' vague vision after touching the yellow Emerald.

"If it's a rabbit we're looking for…" Mephiles said slowly, pausing a moment to think under a tree in the city's park. "Then we oughtta be thinking of where we can find a rabbit…"

"And you're sure it's not Mobian?" Shadow said while trying to more or less jerryrig the radar with the batteries they brought, a few pieces of wire and a couple rubber bands for insulation so he didn't get shocked.

"Positive. The shape of it didn't seem very Mobian like…" Mephiles nodded before glancing at Shadow's project. "Uh… are you sure you should be doing that? We _could_ find a store that sells the right batteries…"

"All I need to really do is create the right voltage for the direct current with these batteries and theses bits of wire to channel it." Shadow explained, even though Mephiles and Rouge both knew that this wasn't going to end well by the looks of it. "If I complete the current, then there should be a constant flow of power from the batteries to power the radar long enough…" He touched the last wire to the minus end of a nine volt and the next thing anyone knew… there was a **POW **sound, a spark of light, a curse or two and Shadow was holding the smoking radar. The glass screen had cracked from too much power being put into it.

"I _told_ you so…" Mephiles said before having to dodge a smack that was aimed at the back of his head when Shadow growled. "Hey! It's not my fault!"

"Shadow… we were borrowing that from GUN…" Rouge shook her head. "That's going to be a good chunk out of our paychecks…"

"Maybe if the thing was rechargeable, we wouldn't have had that problem to begin with…"

"Don't forget the other one that was broken during that avalanche…"

"Aw, crud…"

Mephiles sighed, knowing that the only thing that could find the Emeralds fast enough for them was now gone. He couldn't help but notice all his bad luck.

Then he froze. He had felt an odd pulse of energy somewhere.

"Hey, guys… did anyone else feel that?"

"What?"

"Some kind of energy field just got stronger…"

"How can you tell?"

"Because I just felt it, of course. Think it might be the Emerald?"

"Do you see it anywhere?"

"Not really, but that's not to say it's not here, right?"

"True…" Shadow nodded. "But all the same… perhaps we should wait to see if anything seems odd… it might be Iblis after all… he's got as bad as a Chaos Signature as Dark…"

"Or yours…"

"Mine's not bad! It's just… big…" Shadow directed his attention to the top of the tree. A kite was stuck there, so that meant that somewhere, a kid wasn't too happy.

"It's still a strong one…" Mephiles said while watching a critter not too far away emerge from the safety of a bush, sniffing at the air before scratching the ground. "Heh… there's a bunny over there."

"Like the one were looking for?"

"I'm not too sure… but he's kinda small to be having an Emerald, don't you think?"

"Looks like he's looking for something…" Rouge said, also watching him.

As it turned out, there was a burrow there, so the rabbit went right in. A few seconds later, he crawled out backwards, holding a purple gem in his paws.

"Do you see what I see?" Shadow said slowly. "Does he have what we're looking for?"

"I think so…" Rouge said.

"Sh-should… should we catch him?" Mephiles said, not sure of what to do.

"We need to be careful to not scare him away…" Rouge said, looking at him. "Rabbits are high strung, and even a sudden move could send him sprinting."

"But he's not going to get far if he's holding an Emerald in his paws…"

The rabbit looked up at him and stood his ears straight up, swiveling them as if he wanted to hear what was being said. Almost as if he knew that he was being talked about, he held the Emerald tighter and hopped off on his back legs. Surprisingly… the little bugger was fast!

"Hey! Catch him!" Shadow shouted.

Mephiles wasn't really the fastest between the three of them, so it wasn't a surprise that trying to keep up left him gasping for air, watching Shadow do a Spin Dash, and Rouge take off in the air with her wings to glide while he was stuck running on foot. Seeing that the rabbit was making a circular path in the area as a pattern, he predicted that the rabbit was unlikely to run away from here, but as the area was quite big, the chase was almost equivalent to an Olympic competition, and that was something that Mephiles was unable to do.

He wasn't really out of shape, he just never really exercised because he never had any extra weight to burn off because of his metabolism, which neutralized any fat source at all before any could store. Because of the lack of working on any muscles, his body strength was weak as far as endurance for something like running, which would leave him winded in a matter of seconds, and would leave him on the ground, trying to catch his breath and waiting for his body to cool down.

Which was exactly what happened this time as well.

Mephiles flopped down under the shade of the tree on his stomach after a few minutes, panting like mad as he watched Shadow and Rouge chase the rabbit, hoping that they could catch him.

'_Are you serious?_' He heard Dark say in disbelief. '_You can survive a beatdown by me, life through cardiac arrest, drowning, an avalanche and electrocution… but running is what makes you flop down in defeat?_'

_Have you tried this? I didn't think so… _Mephiles growled at him, his mind speech unobscured by his panting, which now to the added effect… his pink tongue was out getting dried by the air, which was something he really didn't want, but the air helped cool him off anyway, so he could deal with a dry tongue for now. _You've never had to run with your feet before…_

'_Maybe not… but I know I'd be _so_ much better than you if I did…_'

Mephiles rolled his eyes. It was nice to see that Dark was acting normal… and by that, it meant that he was claiming his superiority of Mephiles in even the simple act of using his legs. In fact… nearly everything, Dark claimed he could do better.

_We'll see about that. The moment we get you out of my head, and we're not fighting for our lives… let's have a race…_

'_You know I can do a Spin Dash… right?_'

_Yeah… so?_

'_And you can't. I'm so much faster than you… I'd wipe the floor with you…_'

_Instead of telling me what you think you can do… give me a suggestion on how to get that darn fourth Chaos Emerald…_

'_You're too slow… pathetic for a hedgehog, really… you weigh less than most even, so nothing is dragging you down._' Dark seemed to be enjoying that he was poking fun at Mephiles' inability to run as fast as the other Mobian Hedgehogs, and with extremes like Sonic and Shadow to throw off the average, Mephiles was just that lonely dot on the left of the scatter plot graph.

_Some help you are… _Mephiles said, letting Dark just enjoy his moment, knowing that Dark had been a little off beat recently, so a bit of what he was used to would establish some sense of familiarity with him.

Mephiles pushed himself off the ground and looked up, seeing the rabbit switch directions and pull a one-eighty, Shadow missing him completely and once he realized what had happened, he dug his heels into the dirt, making a skidmark style crater when he had hit the brakes, dirt and dust kicking up as he did.

As for Rouge, turning in the air needed a lot of room if it was going to be a U-turn, and since she was gliding, that meant she had to touch down on the ground to a moment and jump into the air again if she wanted to do it quickly.

Meanwhile, the rabbit, well out of their way, was taunting them by hopping back and forth on either foot, waving the Emerald in the air with both paws. The last straw for Shadow was the rabbit pulling down an eyelid with one paw and sticking his tongue out at him.

The rabbit didn't have time to react. Shadow Chaos Snapped where he was and the next thing the rabbit knew, he was lifted off the ground by his ears.

"Hey! No fair! That's cheating!"

"You talk?" Shadow was surprised.

"Of course I talk! Let me go!" The rabbit kicked his feet around in the air.

"No. You have something that we want."

"What? This shiny pretty thing? No way! It's mine! I found it!" The rabbit brought his feet up to wrap around the Emerald as if he thought that he could hide it. "Finder keepers! Get your own!"

"You don't understand. Keeping that right now is dangerous for you… there is someone who wants to use them to gain power, and if he gets it… that's it for all of us."

"I'm fast! Nobody can catch me!"

"I believe I just did…"

"You cheated!"

"Please can we have it?" Mephiles tried. "It's kinda important that we do. That guy he just told you about wants to kill me, and if we don't get this before he does… I'm going to die."

"Shouldn't have made whoever it is mad then!" The rabbit stuck his tongue out, causing Mephiles make an expression similar to Dark's offended one with a hint of dread over that this might be the hardest Emerald to get. "He wants the shiny, he can get his own!"

"It's not a 'Shiny'! It's a Chaos Emerald!" Mephiles said loudly, sounding a little panicked. "There's seven of them, and one alone is really powerful! This guy just needs one for a power boost, and he's not just wanting to kill just me right now!"

"If there's seven of them, go get another one. I got dibs on this one!"

"If you don't hand this over, I'm going to have to take it myself…" Shadow said quite calmly, though the undertone to his voice told anyone else that he's not going to be negotiable with his request. Shadow made a grab for it and the rabbit latched onto it tighter, kicking his feet at Shadow's hands.

"Thief! Thief! It's mine! It's mine!"

Being that the rabbit was about as heavy as the Emerald (or as light as, whichever way you wanted to go at it.), Shadow could only let go of the ears and shake the Emerald with both hands to try to knock him loose.

"I am _not _going to be bested by a rabbit!" Shadow yelled, shaking the Emerald harder when the rabbit blew a raspberry at him. "I am the Ultimate Lifeform and _you _are going to let go right now!"

"Make me!"

Meanwhile, Mephiles was fretting to himself about the likeliness that Shadow might lose his grip on the Emerald and the rabbit would be free to run off, perhaps being long gone with the Emerald before they had a chance to catch him. The chance of reasoning with him didn't work, obviously, because he was more captivated by the shininess of the Emerald than he was with what it was capable of.

Mephiles was pulling his ears down in worry as he trailed his eyes along the path of the Emerald while Shadow swung it and the rabbit.

Rouge on the other hand had an idea. The rabbit liked the Emerald because it was shiny? Why not offer something seemingly better as a trade?

What could seem to be better than a shiny purple gem? Why not a couple of large, solid gold, sparkling Rings that chime when they hit something?

At the sound of a short whistle, Shadow stopped shaking the Emerald and Mephiles, the rabbit and Shadow all looked in the bat's direction, who was spinning two Rings on her fingers.

The rabbit looked up at the Rings, watching them catch the sun's light at almost the perfect moment. The Rings hit at the right moment, making the cheery and nearly well known chime, which seemed to catch the rabbit's attention enough.

"Y'know…" Rouge said slowly, as if she was just considering the idea. "These Rings are much prettier, and they're made of solid gold. And they never lose they're shine…"

That's all that was needed to be said.

The rabbit jumped off the Emerald and snatched the Rings out of the bat's hands to look at them closer. They definitely seemed much better…

"Trade?" Rouge suggested.

In a couple of minutes, the Emerald was theirs, and the rabbit was long gone.

"I wonder if he knows he could find those just lying around the streets." Shadow said, turning the Emerald over in his hands.

"By the time he does, we'll be nowhere near him…" Mephiles breathed a sigh of relief. "Y'know… this might have been the most difficult Emerald for us to get…"

"Maybe… At least we got it now…"

"Can I see what this one does?" Mephiles added with curiosity. "It's the same color as my Aura, and if the red one works well with Dark, maybe this one it the one that works well with me…"

"That's not really a good logic…"

"Not all of the Emeralds could be bad for me… that's just not fair if they were…"

"One nearly drove you mad, one hurts you if you touch it…"

"One lets me do some kind of Vision Enhancement, and it helped us find two of them now…" Mephiles countered. "I promise to give it back right away if something goes wrong…"

"That still isn't going to be reassuring if you can't give it back before you're aware…"

"Then with that reasoning, you'd take it from me the moment something is amiss…" Mephiles said. "Either way, if something is wrong, it won't be for long because you'll be sure to take it out of my hands…"

"I don't want to risk it…"

"What if it ends up helping with one of my powers like the yellow one did? That seems like it's worth trying, right?"

"And how do you know if you're not going to get hurt or not?"

"I don't. I never do, and I'll never know until I can see if it will or not…"

Shadow raised an eyebrow at him.

"You've been watching too much Disney movies…" He shook his head. "That logic was out of 'Finding Nemo'."

"Oh, just give me the dang Emerald…" Mephiles snatched it out of his hands anyway.

As a wonderful sign, nothing bad seemed to happen. Mephiles took a deep breath and seemed more at ease.

"Well?" Shadow and Rouge waited for a response.

"Y'know that little shadow of dread I have in the back of my mind a lot of the time?"

"Yeah…"

"I don't know how to explain it clearly… but it just… my brain feels so clear right now…" Mephiles closed his eyes and smiled contentedly. "I really like this Emerald… have I told you guys how much I like you too? This one just makes me feel so happy right now… Dark said it's not a bad one… do I have to give it back now? Because I don't want to…" Mephiles giggled softly and hugged the Emerald with a grin, perhaps looking his best in days. "I love you guys _so _much right now!"

Shadow looked at Rouge.

"Should we?" He asked.

"Maybe not right now… he hasn't been that happy in days. He's hardly smiled much since Twinkle Park, so it'll probably do him some good…"

"Maybe…" Shadow realized that it had been almost a week since said incident. And with all the stress, anxiety, fear, strain and a slowly worsening case of insomnia Mephiles was feeling from this whole ordeal, a few minutes of induced euphoria was probably what he needed right now.

* * *

Well, looks like Mephy found a great Emerald. I can just see that happening too, in fact. ^^

Did you find the Nintendo element?

It was Mips the Rabbit. He's from Super Mario 64, and he was found in the downstairs of Princess Peach's castle. He had a Gold Star with him, and the little blighter is insanely hard to catch.

I made him a bit more of a smart alec though, since he never really taunted me like that in the game. XD


	23. Neurology

Okay. Sorry for more of a wait. My brother managed to get a vacation at the beginning of the month, and he spent a week and a half with us, so I was occupied with hanging out with my big brother. It was almost nostalgic at one point: Him, my cousin and I got to go to a movie that was on base (He's in the Air Force, so military base movies can be see with him. Cheap to almost free. ^^)... by ourselves! In his new, red car! Instantly, the little trip reminded me of when all three of us were kids, and there was a small (We're talking two screens) movie theater about a half an hour walk away. Back then... well, Mom could let us go to places like the theater, and Rally's or that little taco shop or even the park without having to worry. It was safer then. Anyway... Me, being the middle in age, but almost like the youngest because the two of them always looked after me (My cousin is like my brother. As far as we're all concerned, we're the same kin. Different parents, yeah... but we grew up like brother and sister. ^^), and this was almost like, that, right down to me tailing behind them while we were doing the walking part. Though, this time... I didn't drag a tumbleweed home XD

We saw Angles and Demons, as well as earlier that week with Mom we saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in IMAX/HD. Stunning movie... obviously aimed at guys with some of the humor and "eyecandy"... but, since I'm a fan of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime, as well as some of the voice actors are some of my tops (Tom Kenny (Many voices, including Spongebob, Mayor from Powerpuff Girls, The Penguin from The Batman to name a few), Kevin Micheal Richardson (Most notable to me as Trigon's voice in Teen Titans), Frank Welker (Too many to name, but think Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget), and Grey DeLisle (Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is maybe her most heard). I should note that I figured that out long before I googled it to se if I was right ^^

Anyway, about this chapter: I have been planning this with Dark for a while. Like, back around Christmas time. So it's not random filler that seemed good, it's planned ^^

In fact, I been setting it up slowly for this set of new things we find out about him. Enjoy ^^

* * *

Dark froze and twitch his ears. There was another presence here again, and Dark immediately took that as a bad thing.

Sitting up from his laying position on the couch slowly, he peered over the back of the couch, not raising his head higher than his eyes.

Nothing.

"_I need to stop being so para-_YAHK!" Dark had lowered his head again and glanced to his left, and the next moment, he scrambled backwards over the couch in fright, hitting the abyss' floor hard and not taking any moment now to process the shockwave of pain that had resulted from that.

Once he was far enough away to instill any sense of security, he took a better look at what he had run from.

Blue furred, crystal tipped, and pale copies of his eyes, arms folded and teeth slightly bared as the eyes were narrowed. This, of course, was neither Mephiles nor Iblis.

Repeating the same curse in his head again and again in rapid succession, Dark forced a fake grin on his face to mask over his unease, even though his ears plastered against his head.

"_Instinct! How nice of you to drop by!_" Dark quite loudly, hoping Mephiles would hear him, and perhaps call him off.

"Cut it, Dark… this isn't your head, and you shouldn't be here!"

"_I have no other choice… It's either that, or both Mephiles and I will be in far worse danger…_" Dark tried to explain while scooting back a little before realizing that he wasn't standing up, and being on the ground was displaying weakness. He got to his feet and faked dusting off dirt from his now matted and unkempt fur. "_And believe me, if I could leave his mind right now and get back into the real world… I would do that in a heartbeat…_"

"I didn't like the fact that you slammed my head into those bars…" Instinct growled, unfolding his arms and clenching his fists a little, not once taking his eyes off Dark.

Dark shifted his eyes a little from the locked gazes to see that Instinct had a bruise on his forehead where it had been slammed into the cage, and no doubt that it hurt a little.

"_Still sore about that, eh?_"

"That's a bit of an understatement…"

Dark gave a short, nervous laugh before trying again to tone down the situation. "_Uh… Listen… Don't take that personally… I'm like that with everyone I meet…_"

"All the more reason to get you out of here…"

"_I mean… well… I… I don't really think about what I do until I've done it…_"

"Bad character trait right there…" Instinct moved a little closer, making Dark a bit more uneasy, but he still stood his ground.

"_Look… If you give me reason to, I _will _attack you, because it's not going to put Mephiles at risk…_" Dark was getting a little nervous.

"I really don't see why Mephiles' is afraid of you…" Instinct shook his head. "You're not that scary at all… you seem more scared of me…"

A split second warning of a hiss and Dark launched himself at Instinct, bringing them both to the ground, Instinct not seeming too intimidated by this.

"Of course, I could be wrong… but you're going to have to do better than that if you want me to do what Mephiles does when you do that to him…"

"_I am not afraid of anything!_" Dark barked, leaning forward to bring his nose just inches from Instinct's, letting his heated breath brush across the look-a-like's face.

"Stop lying to yourself… seriously…" Instinct's expression hadn't changed much since he had gotten there. "The fact that you attack anyone that says otherwise just tells us even more…"

Dark's fingers tightened around Instinct's arms, the shade starting to shiver and shake from rage before he could put himself in check and suddenly he felt a dip in his energy.

Unable to compensate for that fast enough, his blood pressure dropped and there was a sudden weakness in his limbs as the sensation of a spinning room made itself know to him before he collapsed to the side and blacked out before he could process what had happened.

Waking up whatever time it was later, Dark was lying on the couch again, and dared to open his eye just a little to see what was going on.

Something damp was being rubbed against his fur, which made him shudder.

"Oh, dear… he must be getting cold from that…" He heard Mephiles whisper to himself. "But I can't help it… he's let his fur get so bad and messy that he's going to be so matted soon that he's going to have to shave it all off if it's not cleaned. I'm sure either way it's going to embarrass him so much that he's going to worry himself sick…"

"… _Stop fretting over me…_" Dark muttered, raising his hand up to shove the washcloth away. Mephiles merely dipped it in the bowl of now murky water, wrung it out and proceeded to clean of the chest fur. "_… I'm serious… stop it…_"

"Your white fur is stained a yucky looking orange now… you know that, right?" Mephiles frowned. "And the blue fur is looking like a dark purple in the places you got bit… and you haven't once tried to clean your fur at all. You look ill."

"_I don't need to… it's always been as well kept as yours because my fur care is mirrored by yours…_"

"Do I even look remotely as bad a you right now?"

Dark was about to answer before his eyes widened in realization and he inhaled quickly when he realized that his fur was indeed nowhere as well kept as Mephiles' right now. Mephiles' was a little ruffled right now, yes… but it looked like it had been recently washed, with little to no signs of dirt or anything of the sort.

Dark, on the other hand, his fur was matting in small clumps from the dried blood from his wounds that had been healed over by Mephiles, and the only thing that didn't matt was his quills, which were too stiff to do that.

"_Tha… that's not… that _shouldn't _be happening…_" Dark stammered as he pulled himself off his back to sit upright. "_My fur should look like yours. All my needs are taken care of by you… I should have not matted like this unless you have… s-something's wrong…_"

"Like what?" Mephiles hadn't looked up and now working a comb through the fur on the chest, having to yank and pull at a few snags. Dark winced a little at the pulling, and once again shoved Mephiles' hands away.

"_Something's wrong with our connections…_"

"It just means that I'm not tied to you anymore… so what?" Mephiles didn't see the problem that was presenting to Dark. Dark had never had to take care of his needs and drives before, and having such an action would make him vulnerable. Mephiles blinked and stared at the comb before handing to Dark. "What the heck am I doing? You're awake now, so you can do this yourself…"

"_I really don't-_"

"It's either that, or shave it all off so that you look like a naked pink rat..."

"_You don't get it… I don't know if I can…_"

"It's just a comb… you comb it through your fur like you would with your fingers…" Mephiles rolled his eyes. "Anyway… what happened? I found you passed out on the floor…"

"_It was Instinct! He was here, and he was mad at me… and I got mad at him, and then everything went black!_" Dark explained quickly, not realizing that Mephiles was unaware of Instinct.

"Who?" Mephiles seemed a little concerned about Dark, and this was evident when he reached a hand up to the shade's forehead, which was slapped away.

"_I'm not sick! You might not have met him, but he's another you who controls your gut instincts. And he thinks I'm bad for you…_"

"Dark… are you feeling okay?"

"_Wonderful! Just plain fantastic! I'm just trying to explain something to your thick mind, and you can't process it at all!_"

"Yeah… you're not sick…" Mephiles muttered to himself. "But I think I would have known about him…"

"_He's not found in this part of your head…_" Dark explained. "_Anyway… he's a bit mad at me for… slamming his head into some bars… in a cage…_" Dark said the last part a bit slowly, as if he really wasn't sure if that was significant or not.

Mephiles looked up and narrowed his eyes.

"You just can't help yourself can you? I leave you alone for a little while and you still do something bad…"

"_He was the one who made you bite part of my ear off. And he's responsible for most of your feral instincts, and the one that make you go nuts!_" Dark tried to justify this. "_All I did was knock him out so he didn't cause any problems…_"

"Was that all?"

"_Well… he was also kinda laughing at the whole ear thing…_"

"You need to learn how to stop attacking people when you get mad." Mephiles folded his arms and shook his head. "Just because you feel like wanting to vent it all out on something, doesn't mean you should."

"_And how else do you propose that I do that?_"

"Find a higher tolerance for your anger…" Mephiles suggested. "Don't try to solve your problem by trying to end it physically. Because someday, you're going to end up lashing out at the wrong time and you might end up hurting someone or something you didn't want to…"

"_I'll think about that when it gets to that point…_"

"I'm serious! When you get mad, it's like someone else is behind those eyes of yours, and you're someone that not you…"

"_This me is not the real me…_" Dark said almost broodingly, bringing his knees to his chest as he leaned forward to rest his head on his folded arms. "_This one… the me you've been helping… I don't really exist because the real Dark is cold, conniving, cynical, conceited, careless… aggressive… and… and fearless… and he's psychotic…_"

"Not really good qualities, I admit… but I do admire the fearless part… I'm so afraid of a lot of things that I can't think clearly when I'm facing them… sometimes I can't breathe when I am…" Mephiles said, trying to be a little supportive.

"_Now… look at me, the Dark that you're just getting to know… I'm getting sick, I can't control my anger long enough to stay conscious at times… I'm going mad from all of this; I'm having mental breakdowns… I've hurt myself and could have twisted your wrist…_" Dark lifted his head a little to lock gazes with Mephiles to be sure he was being heard. "_… I'm suffering from depression, anxiety… there's been a second voice in my head a few times already, and it sounds exactly like mine… it's contradicted _all_ of my logic… I've felt fear and I don't like it all…_"

"No one ever does… not that I know of, anyway…" Mephiles was a little worried about some of those things he had just been told, since he had no idea about it until now. "Dark… I didn't know you were depressed and hearing things… I mean… I guessed that you were upset at the very least, but I didn't know it went _that _far…"

"_I'm only in a phase right now… I'm at the bottom of a rollercoaster right now… I'm used to that…_"

"I've never seen you depressed before…"

"_Because you were never around when something caused it…_" Dark explained, tearing his eyes away from Mephiles to stare at his feet. "_You've seen me during manic phases, when I'm not too pleased, and when I'm cracking…_"

"So… wait… then that means…" Mephiles said slowly, scratching behind his ear as he pieced it together. "That you're… uh… bipolar? Am I right?"

"_Is _that_ what it's called? I just thought I was mental all this time…_" Dark added with a tone that hinted that he was daring Mephiles to see what would happen if he agreed with him.

"Well, to be honest… I never did read too much into it, since I don't like getting into topics about mental instability…" Mephiles shifted his eyes away for a moment. "But, but it does seem to fit from what I've seen of you…"

"_How so?_"

"Well, you seem to have a lot of energy when you've lost it, like you're hyper or something. You seem to sometimes not need much sleep at all, and most notably is your delusions of grandeur."

"_The last one meaning?_"

"You tend to envision yourself way more highly than you should." Mephiles explained. "Don't get me wrong… you're quite intelligent and powerful and you're not at all passive… but you certainly aren't the best in those fields. It's a good trait at times, but it's still rough around the edges…"

Dark sunk a little. "_You talk of how I'm such an assertive and calculating creature when in reality I'm falling apart and I don't know what to do next…_"

"It's not that bad…" Mephiles tried to sympathize.

"_Look at me! I'm matted and wearing my own blood on my fur!_" Dark snapped his head up and narrowed his eyes at Mephiles. "_Every inch of my fur is dirty, knotted, and lost all it's sheen from all the blood from getting hurt, sweat from my fear of Brother… the stress, the anxiety, the illness, the insomnia when I haven't fainted or forced myself to fall asleep, the helplessness against my Brother… everything I've ever thought was true about myself and why I'm here and why I'm only half of something and why I can do what I do and why you and I exist in such a complicated harmonic if not chaotic relationship and whether or not I'm some kind of parasite or disease or should be compared to one and what I really am has been flipped upside down and ripped apart at the seams right in front of my very eyes! Are you really a hedgehog, or have you just been lying to me too? Maybe you're just a spiky, short eared, genetically mutated rabbit and you want me to _think _you're a hedgehog!_" Dark was looking at him like he wasn't going to believe any answer he was going to be given anyway.

"You're getting a little out of hand here…" Mephiles said quite calmly, trying to keep Dark from spiraling out of control again like last time. "I'm very certain I'm a hedgehog… really. And yes… you look like a mess right now... but you're not the first to have that happen to them. Really, all you need to do to fix that is groom your fur, and once it's all nice again, you'll feel a little better too."

"… _And… my migraines have become more frequent…_" Dark added a bit more softly, as if he thought this was saying too much.

Mephiles blinked.

"More freq-Wait… Are you saying you've had bad headaches before now?"

"_It used to be only when I had déjà vu, or something was oddly familiar and I couldn't place it…_" Dark looked away again, muzzle darkening a little as if he was embarrassed about that tidbit. "_but recently, they've been much more often, and thankfully when I've been left alone so I can rest and wait it out… it goes away if I have complete silence for a while and I don't have any need to use very many of my senses…_"

"That's probably why you've been asleep a few times I've found you, and probably why you sometimes don't want me talking to you… huh?"

"_That's actually mostly because I find that your constant use of my name when you're worried about me or when you're panicking, a bit annoying when I'm trying to think…_"

"I only say it again and again because when you don't respond the first time or so… I'm afraid that you're hurt or sick or something… I mean… what else would stop you from answering me?"

"_Other than when I'm trying to sort my thoughts? Oh, nothing… I'm sure…_" Dark said sarcastically. "_Anyway… when I'm asleep, at least, my brain won't hurt if I'm not awake to feel it. And when the migraine goes away, I can resume what I was doing… unfortunately; one is arising right now… _" Dark had his fingers pressed against his temples and his eyes squeezed shut. "_I f-felt some warning signs earlier…just before I fainted… but I was j-just hoping it was a f-false alarm or because of the s-syncope…_" It was obvious that he was in pain from the severe headache, and from what Mephiles knew about migraines… he guessed that Dark was most likely going to be sick to his stomach in a matter of minutes. Almost as if on cue, poor Dark paled a couple shades on his muzzle, he shuddered feverishly, and a thin sheen of sweat started to glisten on his fur. Mephiles frowned in concern and reached for an airsickness bag to give to him.

But, in a somewhat impressive display of willpower, Dark swallowed back something and forced himself to stop shaking, whispering something to himself before taking a deep breath and relaxing a little, though he was still a little shaky and his hands were still on his head.

Mephiles watched him for a moment before an idea struck his mind.

"Hey Dark…" Mephiles tried to say as carefully as possible so he didn't worsen the migraine.

"… _Please stop talking right now…_

"Sorry, but-"

"… _You're making it worse…_"

"I'm sorry… but I have an idea…"

"… _It'll have to wait…_"

"I hope not. I think I might be able to help you even if it's going to be just for right now…"

"… _If you can make them disappear completely, I'll be your best friend…_" Dark tried to add a little bit of humor to try to distract himself.

"How about if I can lessen the pain even just by a little?"

"… _Then I won't kill you…_"

"And if I try and it _doesn't_ work?" Mephiles added, wondering with a bit of anxiousness what might be the "prize" for failure.

"… _Then you get an 'A' for effort, but the overall performance sucks…_" Dark added with a small smile since he found that one to be a little amusing.

"Well, better than nothing…" Mephiles shrugged. "I was thinking that I could use my healing powers to help out…"

"… _I'm not so sure that's going to work too well…_"

"Why not?"

"… _It's not an injury… it's a neurological syndrome that's more or less coded into my DNA structure. I've had it forever, and isn't anything new… It's not likely to be cured…_"

"It's still pain… I don't see why I shouldn't be able to at least lessen or dull it for you…"

"… _I'm not getting my hopes up…_" Dark grumbled.

"I'm still trying… lie down so you can calm down a little…"

Dark didn't like the idea of being told what to do, but complied none the less, glaring at the hedgehog with his hands still clamped to his head.

Mephiles held his hands above where Dark was clutching his and emitted a light and soft looking purple aura from them that brushed against Dark's head. Mephiles saw Dark loosen his grip a little before the hedgehog stumbled back with harsh gasp while holding his own head before looking up and panting a little.

"That really _does _hurt!" Mephiles yelped. "And you have these regularly?"

"_Imagine it happening non stop for hours… that's about what it's really like…_"

"How are you feeling now?"

Dark paused before answering, taking his hands of his head for a moment, staring at the hedgehog with an astonished look.

"… _It's not nearly as bad right now! It's just like a normal headache! A not distracting one!_"

"I'm sure the migraine isn't the only source of your headache, though…"

"_Why not?_"

"If you lose energy when you're mad because Iblis can drain it… and you're either mad, sarcastic or depressed most of the time… then it could also be Iblis…" Mephiles said slowly. "Come to think of it… I can't recall you being anything else but that… you don't smile much either… if not at all…"

"_How very observant of you…_" Dark rolled his eyes, frowning a little again. "_But need I remind you that I-_"

"Don't need help with anything else other than what you asked. I know… I _know…_" Mephiles folded his arms and shook his head slowly. "But you can't be sure that what you're asking of me is really what you need…"

"_It's what I want…_"

"That doesn't mean that it's what's really important…"

"_I can take care of myself…_"

"You're doing it again, Dark…"

"_What?_"

"Giving me the same response like you do every time I try to help…"

"_What response?_"

"The one where you try to get me to back off by using generic sentences. I know you well enough by now that you're just trying to get me to stop trying. Why… I don't know…"

"_Y'know… you should be a therapist._" Dark looked up at him and raise an eyebrow. "_Because you won't stop prying until you get what you want to know about how one feels._"

"I dunno… I don't really like discussing things having to do with minds."

"_For someone who dislikes it so much, you sure are persistent._"

"I just wanna help." Mephiles looked at him innocently, drooping his ears a little. "Maybe if you let someone help you, you won't be so mad all the time."

A slight widening of the eyes to show Dark's surprise at such a conclusion before narrowing them again.

"_What? Do you think I'm jealous of you or something?_"

"What do mean?"

"_I know I'm not the same as you, but I don't need what you have to be happy._" Dark folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

"What _do _you have to be happy then?" Mephiles tilted his head. "Just shove all the unimportant things aside, and you're really all alone. Your only classification of a relative wants you dead, the people who are aware you actually _exist_ aren't thrilled that you do, you don't have anyone or anything like a Chao or a pet to express any sense of caring to that will return it regardless of what you've done…"

"_I can channel all the power I need to stay satisfied with myself. As long as I'm the best and strongest, I have all I need._" Dark said simply.

"There's more than just that." Mephiles cringed a little. "I mean… I certainly don't have as much power to control as you do, and I'm a coward as well as a worrywart… but I'm happier than you are."

"_So? What's your point?_"

"(Sigh) Dark… Did you ever try to do anything else but try and get better than all the rest of us?"

"_Like what?_"

"Hobbies, maybe? Or maybe trying to make a card pyramid, or… something?" Dark was looking at him like he didn't even know what that was. Mephiles sighed again. "Y'know… I'm really sad for you. Really… I am. Maybe it's because you keep sending out the emotions you don't know at me or something, but I pity you."

Dark frowned and growled lightly, baring his teeth a little.

"_I don't need anyone's pity. I'm not some poor, helpless creature that's been abandoned. I've been doing fine until Iblis started this whole thing._"

"Now, when did this really start then? Was it before or after you tried to make a deal with him? Or maybe it was when you were split from him, or was it while the both of you were just consciences of Solaris? You can't even remember that, Dark." Mephiles shook his head slowly. "You can't remember what really happened, what you were or why you did what you did. You say you don't need help, but I know it's pulling you apart just by not knowing as well. I know this is going to hurt your ego, but… you've changed, Dark. You can deny it all you want… but what you've been all these years is not real. You're waking up, and it's all going to come back to you…"

"_How do _you_ know?_" Dark relaxed his teeth baring a bit to look at him questioningly. "_What makes you so sure that's going to happen?_"

"It happened with me too. After we started to lose the ties from the first time and all the times after that… it all started to come back. Slowly at first, but the last month it's gotten really crazy. I'm learning the truth, not just about myself, but you too. And I think there was a reason you wanted to fuse to me in the beginning. I don't know for sure, but I think that you did because of your ability to see into the future and see what outcomes would happen. Maybe you knew that you were going to lose your memory, that Iblis hated you, and that you needed some help later. I think that because I was there, you chose me because you saw that I wasn't going to stop trying and that all these years of me knowing you would benefit in this. I think you knew, Dark…"

"_Interesting theory, but I have no points to believe it true or false, so I can't say any._" Dark seemed mildly impressed with Mephiles ability to deduce all that. "_Perhaps a detective is more your cup of tea, since you seem to come up with plausible theories on the spot._"

"Y'know… you really need to get out of here. A mind as smart as yours shouldn't have to be stuck in here."

"_Three more Emeralds, Mephy. Three more…_"

* * *

Returning back to consciousness sometime later, Mephiles yawned and stretched, blinking himself awake, trying to remember what had happened to cause him to fall asleep again.

Oh, of course. It was a mix of the having to run after the rabbit, the sense of security the purple Emerald gave him, and the calm weather as he sat under the shade of the tree. Heh.

"How long was I asleep?"

"About ten minutes. Why?"

"Really? Wow, I need to set up some sense of time in my head then. It felt like hours." Mephiles laughed a little as he scratched behind his head. "I really like how this Emerald is really nice. It's almost like it's complimenting with my Aura. And there's no bad effects that I know of. Can I carry this one in my pack?"

"Well… I don't see a problem with it so far, so I guess." Shadow shrugged. "We need to get at least one of these radars fixed. I think Tails might know how, since he's made his own before, but we haven't seen him around for a while."

"Tails is that fox kid you told me about, right?"

"Yeah. The one who has a workshop back a Mystic Ruins."

"Does he come around here too?"

"I'm not too sure. He's hardly too far from Sonic, most of the time."

"How come I've never seen him before then? That hedgehog drops by a lot."

"Tails is getting older now, and he's not following Sonic as much as he used to anymore because he's got his own things to do. But when Sonic goes on an adventure and needs him, you can be sure that he'll be there too."

"But, he's only eight, isn't he?"

"But he's also a genius."

"Must be a lucky kid, then. He can use his tails to fly, and he's smart enough to make such complicated machines…"

"You'll be more amazed when you see them up close."

"The tails?"

"No. The planes and inventions."

"Ohhh… So, what are the chances of us meeting him here?"

"About as likely as anywhere else."

"So, that means..?"

"Let's just start looking for that fifth one…"

* * *

Yeah. I've been planning those medical conditions with Dark for a long time. ^^

Ever noticed how he's mentioned getting a headache from something, or that he really seems to dislike loud and higher pitch sounds sometimes? Or those times when he's trying to sleep? Those were hints about the migraines. ^^

As for the possibility of being bipolar... I went to a symptom checker site and listed all of Dark's "symptoms" and that's what it most matches to. We may have seen him a lot, but it's the stuff he does in between that we don't see. He's had those downs... just mostly offscreen or when we focus our attention elsewhere.

Now, these conditions make Dark seem more... eh... Mobian? He's not a human, so he's not more "Human". In other words, he's got his flaws and weaknesses, and even some hindering ones. So Dark isn't really as invulnerable as he perceives himself. And being as he's an experiment... and created from instability, he's going to be unstable as well.

And now that he's becoming his own individual, he's going to end up having to take care of his fur soon, or like Mephy said: He's going to have to shave it off and start over.

Poor guy, really. I hope he know's he's got a whole group of fans that probably feel real sorry for him.


	24. Cheap Shot

Okay... new chapter time. ^^

By the way... anyone here like House MD? Great show...

* * *

Emerald Energy readings led them to the coast, much to Mephiles' unease. Because of his fear of large and potentially drownable bodies of water, he stayed on the dry part of the sand, keeping his eyes fixed on the ocean as if it was going to suddenly pull back with enough force to flood everything when it rolled back to the coast.

"You know if a tsunami hit us right now..." He said slowly. "We'd all drown?"

"You're kinda morbid, somethings..." Shadow turned his head to look behind himself to look at him. "The chances of that happening are next to nil here because it's nearly a drought right now, and I'm sure it hasn't rained in months."

"'Next to nil' means that there's still room for a possibility..." Mephiles still did not look away from the ocean. "I've heard how droughts in the desert end. It rains really hard, and the place gets flooded. You know... if it rained like that right now... we'd-"

"No, we wont. Stop worrying..."

"And have you heard about the things you can find in the sand? Like sand fleas? And all that sand getting under my fur... That would take ages to get out, even with water..."

"You worry too much..."

Mephiles folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

"Don't blame me. Blame Soleanna and Dark... I give both credit for my jumpiness."

"And I suppose being a real hedgehog with natural instincts isn't a factor at all in this?"

"Dunno what you could mean by that..." Mephiles shrugged. "Anyway... can't we go somewhere else? I really don't like seeing this much water..."

"Y'know... hedgehogs _can_ swim..."

"Then why can't you, that blue one and I do it?"

"I'm not a full hedgehog, Sonic tries to run instead of swim, and you..." Shadow thought for a moment. "Well, you've got rock covering your hands, feet and some quills. The rock is probably too dense to let you keep your head above water for very long unless you splash around enough to stay up. But, since that's a lot of effort, it's almost useless, sink you since anyway..."

"Are you saying I'm heavy?"

"Of course not! You're lighter than me!" Shadow recoiled a bit when he saw that Mephiles was glaring. "I'm saying that the crystals won't let you swim."

"Oh, I _hate_ these things!" Mephiles sunk down to sit in the sand, only to jump up quickly with a cry of pain, and was very displeased to find that a crab had clamped it's claws onto his tail and was now hanging from there as Mephiles tried to shake it off. "I hate this thing, too! Get it off! Ow! Ow! Ouch! Guys!"

Shadow formed a low energy Chaos Spear and grabbed Mephiles by the tail to get him to stand still so he could try to pry the crab off him.

"You're melting my fur off with that!"

"Would you rather I leave the thing there?"

"No! No!"

One scene on a beach and a bald spot later, the crab scuttled between two rocks in a tide pool as Mephiles whimpered, holding his tail, as he now gave Rouge a puppy face.

"Can we _please _go now?" He urged, shifting his eyes quickly to the water and back, taking no effort to hide his unease that had yet to dissipate. "The Emeralds are starting to give off some sort of energy vibe that feels really weird and I'm not sure if I like it or not..."

"How would you describe it?"

"I dunno... it's... kinda... well, it's feels... it's bright." The crystal hedgehog was shifting his eyes around nervously. "Bright is about the best I can come up with, since there's so much, and it's easier to think of the energy in terms of light..."

"So you're not sure if it's good or bad?"

"There's just a lot of it. I can't say what it's supposed to be, but it's... bright."

"That might be because the Emeralds can sense each other, and if there's one close by..." Shadow said. "Then it's going to just get stronger. I can sorta feel it too..."

"Let's just find it and get outta here..." Mephiles muttered, letting go of his tail and folding his ears back a little as he took another quick glimpse at the water, watching it spread across the areas of wet sand before it pulled back again. He swallowed and closed his eyes, knowing that if he kept staring that he was bound to set off another panic attack because of his hydrophobia. "I'm s-starting to f-feel very uneasy..."

"Try holding the purple Emerald." Shadow suggested.

"So... you want to use the Emerald to force me to calm down?"

"Only because it looks like you're going to have a panic attack."

"Is it th-that obvious?" The crystal hedgehog lifted an eye to stare at him.

A nod was given and he reluctantly reached out for the Emerald, feeling it's calming effects almost as soon as his fingers touched it. He forced a small smile on his face, hoping that it would satisfy his friends, and hopefully avoid any questions on what else was playing through his head.

He had made sure that he wasn't unusually quiet when he had last woke up, not really too sure if it was alright to discuss his recent findings about Dark. He predicted that Rouge would be at least tolerable and perhaps understanding about the demon's conditions and disorders... but he was almost certain that Shadow wouldn't care less, and would simply use the presence of the shadow's mood disorder as evidence of insanity. Only Dark, of course... since Shadow didn't seem to mind Mephiles' own mental disorders (one of those being his anxiety disorder, which was most prominent).

_I don't think that he'd be able to put aside what Dark has done to be able to scape up even a shred of pity for him... _Mephiles thought to himself as he stared at the Emerald in his hands. _And I don't think Dark would be willing to accept it from him anyway, so it's just one big jumbled mess... The both of them are so stubborn..._

"Feeling any better?" He heard Rouge say.

"Oh, yes. Thank you." He nodded, grinning a little as he looked at her. The Emerald was helping somewhat this time, and he was accepting any help he would get to try to curb the possibility of a panic attack happening. "So... how are we going to find the next Emerald? This place seems pretty big..."

"Dunno..." Shadow said. "Lot of ground to cover, and since we need to be sure not to draw too much attention to ourselves in case Iblis followed us, the best we can do unless this radar fixes itself on it's own miraculously... is keep an eye out for anything strange."

"Will do." Mephiles nodded, taking another look at the water, this time not as uneasy about it. A twitch of the nose and he added with another droop of the ears: "Smells like fish died here..."

He had said that so low that it was probably not heard.

_Hey, Dark... how ya doing, right now?_

_'Bored out of my skull...' _He deadpanned. _'Isn't there anything I can do? I'm just counting how many quills I have in each clump... which is forty-two in all but one, by the way... that one has thirty-seven... I think that's the one I pull quills out of...'_

_And why would you pull your quills out?_

_'I chew on them when I'm thinking... is that really any of your business?'_

_Sounds like a nervous problem to me... hold on... I think I look like I'm zoning out again... Shadow and Rouge might ask what's going on..._

_'Let them... I don't care...'_

_I'd rather not this time..._

"What's up?"

"Dark's bored..." Mephiles answered not too quickly. It wasn't a lie, so he wasn't lying to them.

"Let him be... I don't care..." Shadow shrugged. "He let himself get into this mess... If it wasn't for the fact that we need to find the Emeralds and that you're in danger... I wouldn't have thought twice about letting Iblis have him."

"It's not his fault!" Mephiles said loudly before he could stop himself. "It's not his fault for being a shadow! It's not his fault for being the youngest of the both of them! It's not his fault that-!"

His voice had been cut off quickly Dark realized what was going on.

_'Shut up _right_ now... you have no right to be stating _any _of that...'_ He heard Dark say quite levelly, voice with such an edge that he was having trouble keeping it steady enough to mask over his anger at Mephiles. Mephiles managed a whimper from the back of his throat.

That only sparked Shadow and Rouge's curiosity.

"Is he forcing you to stop talking?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

Mephiles nodded slowly, unsure of how long he would be able to do that before Dark would freeze that up as well if he decided that could be used to say too much.

"Why?"

Mephiles shot him a look that clearly said: "How exactly do you think I can answer that if I can't use my voice right now?"

Shadow shrugged as Mephiles saw a piece of driftwood on a nearby patch of wet sand near a faucet meant to use to rinse sand off of where it was unwanted.

Mephiles was certain Dark couldn't see what he could, and as long he couldn't use his voice, Dark wouldn't know as easily.

Taking a few quick steps over there and snatching up the piece of driftwood, Mephiles snapped an end off and started to draw something in the sand. Drawing was going to be faster than writing an entire explanation, and people just seemed to understand easier if they could see it.

Mephiles wasn't too skilled of an artist, but he at least decent enough that his work could be identified. A few scratches in the sand and something could be seen.

A flame. A patch of upturned sand to represent a shadow. A ball with small feet and a bunch of spiky lines to represent a small hedgehog. Line from the flame to point away from the area, and an arrow from the shadow to the hedgehog, then a circle around the hedgehog, then scratching out the hedgehog to represent the both of them being fused, and an arrow that goes the opposite of the side the flame went.

"Iblis went a different way?" Shadow guessed. "And... there's a big blotch?"

Mephiles frowned and shook his head quickly. He added crystal tufts to the ends of some ears he drew on the blotch.

"You and Dark?"

He nodded quickly and made a stick figure Mobian hedgehog and gave a few features to show it was meant to be Dark, by scraping off the tip of the right ear and making the bottom set of quills point up like Shadow's and adding a fluffy chest. Oddly, he made the expression wide eyed, the ears folded back, shaky lines around it to look like the stick figure Dark was quivering. A flame was in front of it, and the stick figure Dark's eyes were staring at it fearfully.

"Dark's afraid of fire?"

Mephiles waved his hand with the purple Emerald encouragingly to tell him to think farther into it.

Rouge beat him to it.

"He's saying that Dark is scared of Iblis. That's understandable."

"Why? Because he's more powerful?"

Mephiles frowned a little and gave him a look that it wasn't at all it.

"What?" Shadow still didn't get it.

"Mephiles came to this conclusion while you were still unconscious at the hospital. Dark's this way because of Iblis. Iblis made him like this... He must have mentally abused him or something..."

Mephiles clapped his hands and nodded before writing down a few things.

Migraines.

Bipolar.

Voices.

Depression.

An arrow pointed to the stick figure Dark.

Underneath all that he wrote: "Dark's ill."

Shadow stared at all that, shrugged and folded his arms with an uninterested: "Oooookay..."

Mephiles glared and threw the stick at him, hitting him right on the side of his face, prompting the hedgehog to clap his hand to his face and yelp out.

"What was that for?!"

Not having the stick anymore, he used his finger to spell out: "You're mean..."

_Dark... can I please have the use of my voice now?_

_'You'd better not try that again. Next time, I'm going to lock up everything else I can and make you a vegetable for an hour... maybe two if I'm feeling really special...'_

_Is that a yes, or a no?_

_'I'm giving you a warning... try that again, and I _will _stop you any way I can...' _Dark growled testily.

_I'm just trying to help you..._

_'Then do it without theirs'!' _Dark snapped back.

Mephiles cringed mentally. Dark sounded vicious at the moment.

_S-sorry..._

_'You are to not discuss this any further with them. If I hear any more of it to them... the next time I see you after that... you'll have to do something about that limp I'll give you...'_

_Uh... injuries won't carry over to the real world.. a-and I don't really think th-that you'd want to do that... _Mephiles tried to reason with him.

_'And how can you be so sure?'_

_I know that you don't really want to hurt me... _Mephiles said in a small voice. _And if you don't calm down soon... Iblis will just drain you..._

All the rage that he had felt directed at him died down a little and he heard Dark sigh.

_'Just stop talking to me right now...'_

_S-sorry... b-but can I please talk now?_

_'Sure... why not...' _Dark said flatly.

Mephiles made a quick sound with the back of his throat to test his voice and cleared his throat.

"Dark told me to shut up about it, or he'd make me a vegetable for an hour..." He looked at the sand on the ground. He scoffed for a moment. "... 'Big blotch'... yeah, sure, Shadow... that's exactly what I could have meant... that's sarcasm, by the way..."

"Well, sorry that I missed that big discussion about that whole thing. I was kinda busy being poisoned, remember?" Shadow glared at him.

"Why are you so dense when it comes to Dark?" Mephiles shook his head. "It's almost like the moment he's brought up, you completely shut off."

"Maybe it's because he wanted to kill me before. Or that he was the one that invaded my mind. What about when he fused to me and made me that... that thing! You probably don't remember that, but I could have killed Rouge when he took over my brain! And nearly every time he's shown up, you've ended up dead for long enough to scare all of us! And you just want me to set all that aside and pretend that it doesn't bug me that we're collecting Emeralds to get him out of your head and back here? So that he can supposedly help us stop his brother? What's to say he's not working with him, or that he's not going to turn coward and give us all up to him? Have you ever thought about that?"

Mephiles inhaled and exhaled deeply as he shuffled the Emerald between his hands.

"Dark's not going to double cross us. This is all genuine. I've seen what's in his head, and it's impossible to make that much up..."

"He could just be an elaborate liar. He's a creature of deception, isn't he?"

"You're just as stubborn as he is..." Mephiles muttered, shaking his head.

The next thing he knew was an incredible pain in his head as his vision flashed and he hit the sand as he heard Rouge scream out: "_Shadow!_" in the most shock he had ever heard.

Lifting his aching head and squinting a little through the pain to just make out Shadow holding clenched fists in front of himself and at a stance that gave of every indication that he was ready to fight. Mephiles could never remember seeing him so livid before.

"Don't you _ever _compare me to that _monster!_" Shadow barked at him, shaking a little, perhaps from an adrenaline rush. "I've never done anything like what he's done, and I never will!"

Mephiles crossed his eyes a little to try to focus his suddenly blurry and doubling vision, bringing his hands to his ears to try to block out the sudden ringing sound that had just arisen. What startled him even more it that he now couldn't remember what happened before he realized he was on the ground. He rolled over on his back and shielded his eyes from the sun.

Rouge was next to him and held up a certain number of fingers in front of his face with a concerned look.

"Can you see how many I'm holding up?"

"... Do you even have that many on your hand..?" He muttered, perking his ears forward a little.

"What's our names?"

"... I'm wanting to say... something having to do with color..."

"And yours?"

"... Starts with an 'M'... Mmmm... Mephy?"

"Close enough... How old are you?"

"... there's two digits... uh... I dunno... this many?" He held up both hands with his fingers stretched out to count ten.

"What time is it?"

"... uh... daytime?"

"And... where are we?"

"... Outside..?"

"... Think harder..."

"... My head hurts..."

"You gave him a concussion, Shadow. I hope you feel good about yourself, because you've hurt him to make your point."

Shadow blinked as if he hadn't even seen that, and widened his eyes when he saw what he did.

"Oh, geeze... I didn't _mean_ to."

"Whatever reason you had for it... it's not important right now. Right now, we should get him someplace so he can rest. He's still conscious, and can still answer the questions fairly well for a concussed person so it's not too bad..."

"... Wh-what about the Emerald..? We d-didn't find it... w-we can't leave yet..."

"We'll look later... it's probably buried under all that sand..." She tried to reassure him.

"... We didn't find it... where are we going..?"

"We're going to rent a room so you can rest and get better."

"... I-I feel fine..." Mephiles waved a hand as he was helped to his feet. "... Just a little dizzy... but _f-fine..._"

Having not noticed that he was on his feet again, he almost collapsed backwards before he caught himself, giving them an annoyed look.

"... C-could have t-told me I was st-standing... Can we just find that Emerald and leave..?"

"Meph... you're concussed." Shadow said, keeping himself a good step or two back. "How about you just take a break and we'll try again afterwards?"

"He's only concussed because you hit him." Rouge reminded him, narrowing her eyes at Shadow.

"I didn't mean to! Meph, you know I didn't right?"

Mephiles was scratching his ear, and looking around with a lost look on his face.

"... When did we get here..?" He said with almost a whine to his voice. "... I thought we were at the park..."

Eyebrows raised and mouth half open in almost a comical fashion, Shadow was now concerned even more than he was several seconds ago.

"Should he be doing that?"

"As long as he hasn't fainted, it's not serious..." Rouge was thankful that she had spent a good amount of her time researching helpful little information about health so that she could avoid something happening like what she had seen get turned into an episode of House MD. "And his irises are still equal size, so there's no serious damage..."

"I thought that would have to be determined by pupil size..." Shadow had remembered looking up information on concussions once upon a time ago when he had been concerned that his headbutt into Mephiles' head back in the earlier days of their meeting had caused his absence seizures.

"Does he have _any_ pupils at all?! They're just a solid color!" Rouge was trying not to raise her voice, since several people were starting to stare at the scene, some bewildered by Mephiles' bizarre behavior, as Mephiles was now giggling at something that seemed to very humorous, grinning to himself as he sat back down in the sand and picked up the purple Emerald again and tossed it in the air, catching it and tossing it again. He paused, nodded and laughed again.

"Dark says I should fine in a couple of hours." He paused again and said: "He also said that I should stop saying he said anything while there's people around."

Shadow and Rouge shifted their eyes over to the slowly growing crowd as Mephiles continued to babble what Dark had told him.

"He also said that I should shut up right now. Now he's saying that I'm not really listening to what he's saying because I have a concussion. Now he's growling at me. Now he's yelling. Now he's... oh..." He blinked and stopped tossing the Emerald. "Well, I know I'm not allowed to say _that! _I'd get slapped!"

Shadow and Rouge looked back at each other and nodded quickly before each grabbing one of his arms and pulling him away from there and back towards the street to get back into town.

"Heh... Dark yells a lot when he's mad..."

"Mephiles... maybe Dark was trying to tell you it's a good idea to stop talking."

"But, Shadow said that-_mmph!_"

Shadow had clapped his free hand over his mouth.

"Listen. I hit you in the head, and I'm sorry. You're acting weird, and we just want to get you out of here before something happens."

"When did you hit me?" Mephiles pushed his hand away and stared at him with a confused look.

"About five minutes ago..."

"I don't remember that..."

"Probably because I hit you very hard..."

"Well... my head does feel a little sore... why would you do _that?_"

Shadow paused before saying: "I'm sorry... it was my fault... I might have overacted a little over what you said..."

Rouge gave him a look that Mephiles didn't catch that said: "_A little?!_"

"Well... what did _I_ say?" Mephiles frowned a little, baffled as to what he could have possibly done to cause Shadow to hit him hard enough to cause this now obvious to him case of amnesia. "What could I have possibly done to make you _that_ mad?"

"Let's just get out of here and-"

"_Shadow._" Mephiles dragged his name out to show his annoyance. "Why did you hit me?"

"We still have to find that Emerald and-"

"Shadow. Why?"

There was obviously no way out of it. Shadow was stuck.

"... You compared me to Dark..."

There was a pause before Mephiles pulled his arm out of Shadow's grip.

"That's not a good enough reason." He said levelly. "I know you don't like him. I know you could care less even if he was carried away by a giant ant or something. And I know that you have as much as a grudge against him as he does about you... but like it or not..." Mephiles stood up better to lean against a nearby wall with Rouge's help, and folded his arms. "Dark is going to have some of your traits because he took his form with your shadow. Didn't you ever notice that him and I both have the same patch of white fur you do? Or that all his quills point up like yours do? Our markings are similar to yours..."

Shadow just stared as Mephiles continued.

"The both of you could never beat the other in a battle of wills, because both of you are just as determined as the other to win. Both of you refuse to be told otherwise of what you think is set in stone, and both of you are are determined to set aside what I say because that conflicts with what you know."

"Hey, but I ne-"

"I'm not done. Now... between the both of you, you're obviously the better one because you never went bad to begin with. You also have what he doesn't, and you are in better control of yourself than he is. Does he have those Ring things to help him with his Aura? Does he have anything to think about if he lost it? Does he have anything other than himself? No. He doesn't."

"Well..."

"His only relation doesn't care if he exists or not, he feels like the only group of people that might help him could just up and ditch him at any given time, and he's very much aware that there's going to be problems as soon as he's out of my head, because he knows that he'll have to deal with you for however long it's going to be. You know why I think he really hates you?" Mephiles sighed.

Shadow shook his head, tired of trying to speak if he wasn't going to be heard.

"It's not just because of what happened with that paradox. He knows that he caused that as well. It's not that he can't win against you, or that you return the same feeling of hate back. It's because you're what he couldn't be."

"What..?"

"Think about it. Set aside everything else and boil down to the basics. Both of you are results of experiments against the natural order. He's from one having to do with time, and you're from one trying to cheat death... but you're still basically the same concepts. He was accidental and you weren't, and yet the both of you were hated by mankind for what you were. But right there is where it starts to stray. While you formed friendships and even had what you would call a family... he was forced to be stuck in the darkness with a little hedgehog that didn't have anything to do with all this at the start. While you progressed and made friends and had a new relationship with society... he was already hated and couldn't change anything about that. It tries on his sanity that not only are you out here... but you're the one that is criticizing him the most and and not taking into account your similarities..."

Shadow blinked and bared his teeth slightly.

"I am not him. I am not the same as him, and I don't care what the reason is... he should have never did what he did to you."

"That's not the problem right now! You're not seeing it!" Mephiles said exasperatedly. "Y'know what? Just forget it! You won't listen and you sure won't get it now, because you're being a rock! Let's just get out of here and do whatever it was we were going to do before the argument even happened!"

"Fine!" Shadow shouted back as Mephiles stuck his nose in the air.

Rouge looked at both of them before whispering to Shadow: "He's got a point, though..."

"Oh, don't you start, too..."

* * *

Later, Mephiles was back at where Dark was, having fallen asleep out of sheer boredom from nothing to watch on TV at the room they had rented.

At first, he thought he must have gone mad, because Dark was acting way too happy to be what he thought was normal.

"_Mephy! How nice of you to drop by! How are you?_" Dark was grinning as he put his arm around Mephiles' shoulder, making Mephiles tense up out of unease at the reason for this.

"Uh... f-fine... D-dark? Are you ok-kay?" Mephiles was staring at him with very wide eyes.

"_Oh, of course! Best I've been in days, and I really don't know why, since I remember being really furious with you early..._" Dark giggled and spoke in a fairly quick fashion. "_... Right now, I feel like I can take anything on! Anything at all! Got anything you need to be done, hmm? I feel like making something, or fixing something, or even putting a couple of things together as one thing, a really, really big thing! Huh? Huh? Do ya?_"

"Uhhhhh..." Mephiles was a little nervous. He guessed that Dark must be on the happier end of the spectrum, and with nothing to do... that was bound to drive either of them nuts... most likely Mephiles, who was unsure of how much hyperactivity he could take from Dark. "Uh... d-do you... have you ever heard of... those K'nex things?" He remembered that Rae had quite a bunch of those, and with some many sizes, shapes, pieces and ideas... you could spend a great deal of time making something.

"_No. What are those? Sounds like a building thing! Can you make something with them? Are there a lot? Do you have any? Are they metal or plastic?_"

"Uh... p-plastic. You can make building models and things out of them..."

"_Sounds like a great idea! Do we have any here? Are they big or small? Can I make something big out of them?_"

Mephiles was sure that the image of an extremely excited Dark would stuck in his mind for a long time. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

After Mephiles made sure there was a good amount of pieces around, he watched Dark get to work on making something, and in the first five minutes (astonishing time to him, as the very same model Rae tried took twice as long, even with the directions.), Dark had made a Ferris Wheel that spun if you made it spin. Followed by a Tilt-a-Whirl, then a few cars, and was now working on the next thing... which looked like an eggbeater ride... all with working parts... all under an impressive time.

"Wow... just... wow..."

* * *

Well... looks like Shadow and Mephiles had a bit of a fight here, and Dark is happy for an odd reason.

I was going to add a new picture to DA and all, but figured that this should be put first before it so that everyone won't have to wait much longer. ^^


	25. Over His Head

Been gone a while. Been busy... been moving... ah... well, it's a long story... snoop around my DeviantArt for details. Anyway... I'm goig to treat you guys to a double chapter release. You deserve it for waiting so long...

* * *

Thanks to Mephiles ability to heal at an accelerated rate, it was was obvious that his concussion was now nothing more than a sore spot on the side of his head, which was illustrated by a short and somewhat loud declaration of pain when he pulled his fingers back after touching the bruise.

Turning his attention back to the sight he saw before him, Dark was now sorting the remaining pieces in piles of similar sizes, colors, and functions as he ran off a list of other ideas in rapid succession, hardly pausing for a breath.

"_A car? A bike? A boat? A plane? A frame? Windmill? Tower? Tall tower? With floors and windows? Wheel... pulley with tires... is there any yarn?_"

"What?" Mephiles was still stuck on "windmill" while trying to decode what Dark had been saying.

"_Yarn. Or string... large rubber band even. See the wheels?_" Dark grabbed a couple handfuls of them and held them up, keeping a constant pattern to the speed of his speech. "_Take the tires off and you have the rims. Rims are grooved. Set the string or yarn or band in there, stick an axle through it and pull... it spins! Pulley system attachment... it's a simple machine._"

Mephiles had never seen Dark this happy before. Because of that, he wasn't too sure what to make of it. On one hand, it was nice to see Dark not at all like his usual dour self, living up to his name by extinguishing any light mood by his persistence to stay that way. On the other... Mephiles wasn't sure if he could snap at any moment like the other times. Dark had a habit of being unpredictable, and_ any_thing could set him off like a bomb.

Taking a deep breath, he decided that it might just be a better idea to ride along with the idea right now just to humor the both of them.

"What kinda string do you need?"

"_Anything like it..._"

Mephiles let the image of a ball of yarn flash across his mind, watching a lookalike roll across the floor near Dark, who squealed excitedly and almost pounced on it before he started unraveling the blue yarn until he got the right size, then bit it off with his sharp teeth.

Before he continue any further, however... he froze suddenly. Wide eyed, and otherwise blank in his eyes, Dark stayed perfectly still and quiet, much to Mephiles' unease.

"Dark, are you alright?" Mephiles was almost certain he knew what the answer was going to be, assuming he could get one. Kneeling down, he carefully placed a hand on Dark's shoulder and asked again, raising his other hand up a little to shield his face in case he was going to get smacked again. "What's wrong? You were fine just a minute ago."

Dark blinked many times quickly, shifting his eyes around just as fast. A small frown crept onto his face as he reached his hands up and made a grab for something Mephiles couldn't see.

"Dark, what are you doing?"

"... _You don't see them, do you?_" Dark opened his hand to look at it, frowned again and grabbed in the air again.

"See what?" Mephiles was concerned by this behavior.

"_... The flashing lights..._"

"N-no..." Mephiles' concern increased. "Uh... by any chance... is your sight getting darking?"

"_... Kinda..._" Dark squinted a little. "_I'm a little dizzy too... just a little..._"

Mephiles grabbed him by the arm (his previously uninjured one, just to clarify), and started to pull him near the couch.

"_Oh, would you stop fretting over me?_" Dark rolled his eyes as he was pulled.

"Just a precaution."

"_A precaution of what exactly? I'm already on the floor, so there's no need to worry about being down or not._"

"I thought that couch was better... I mean, the floor is kinda cold, isn't it?" Mephiles paused in pulling long enough for Dark to yank his arm free. Mephiles glared at him and continued. "Come to think of it... why _is _it so cold in here all the time? I know _I'm _not freezing, so why?"

"_It's a blank slate here... you haven't created any boundaries nor have you established time or environment..._" Dark said simply, having made his way back to his project, and threaded the string through a gray cap end connector and snapped it onto a yellow rod and fixed it into place, turning the axle and was pleased to see that the sting stayed in place and rolled up. "_If anything... this whole place technically doesn't exist..._"

"Well, then neither does _your _brain!" Mephiles stuck his tongue out.

"_I'm going to pretend there wasn't a double meaning there and counter with something along the lines of: At least there's a room there..._"

"Hardly! You ripped the whole thing up!" Mephiles saw Dark flinch, and he countered himself. "I'm sorry... that was a bit too far..."

"_Don't remind me..._" Dark turn away and snapped a piece off of his project and tossed it aside. "_Maybe it's best you get back to finding that Emerald right now..._"

Maybe it was the tone, but Mephiles could swear he also saw Dark's aura fuming enough to cause a pale glow. That and the steady growing pile of snapped pieces.

"Stop breaking those! That's part of my brain!"

Dark looked up at him uninterestedly and just to spite him, he tried to snap another one, only to find that he had grabbed a bendy rod, which was also characterized by a bright lime green color, which he mentally wrinkled his nose at.

"_Have I ever mentioned how much I despise this shade of green?_" He tossed it back in it pile and shoved them away with his foot.

"But that's the same color as your eyes..." Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"_I know..._"

* * *

Having once woken up back in the real world, Mephiles was still puzzling about what he had just learned. Having requested to be given some paper and a pen, he intended on relaying that thought to Shadow and Rouge without Dark having the knowledge of it even happening.

"First, can you tell us how you got here?" Shadow said, wanting to be sure that hit to the head didn't cause anything even the slightest.

""Uh, I said that you were as stubborn as Dark, then you punched me in the back of the head and gave me a concussion at the beach?" Mephiles shrugged.

"Okay, what's my name?"

"Shadow, I'm serious. I have to write down something."

_'What exactly do you have to write down?' _Dark tuned in out of curiosity.

_Oh, geeze... eh... it's a really long word... I'm not sure how to pronounce it, so I figured Shadow could help if he saw it..._

_'What word? I might know it...'_

_It's the longest technical word in the English language... _Mephiles quickly made up a story to distract Dark with. _Has about one hundred and eighty-nine thousand... uh... eight hundred something odd..._

_'Letters? Are you talking about the largest known protein? That's going to take a while to even spell it, assuming all the letter repeats don't mess you up on the way...'_

_That's a rea- I mean... can you spell it out? _

_'Well, yes... but that's going to take anyone a couple of hours at average pace... I think I can say it in nearly half the time...'_

_Where did you get the time to practice?_

_'Do you _really_ need to ask me that? How much time have I had to just try and not die of boredom?'_

_Sorry... stupid question there... but maybe if you can explain it better later, that'd be cool. I want Shadow to still tell me, since I don't want him to think you upstaged him or something..._

_'Well after he hit you in the head...'_

_Can you spell it out? You said you can do it in an hour, so I'd like to hear that..._

_'Assuming I don't collapse from lack of breathing properly, why not?' _Dark sounded a bit smug about this. Taking a deep breath to start, he rattled off rapidly what he could one letter at a time in one breath before taking another. '_M-e-t-h-i-o-n-y-l-t-h-r-e-o-n-y-l-t-h-r-e-o-n-y-l-g-l-u-t-a-m-i-n-y-l-a-r-g-i-n-y-l-t-y-r-o-s-y-l-g-l-u-t-a-m-y-l-s-e-r-y-l-l-e-u-c-y-l-p-h-e-n-y-l-a-l-a-n-y-l-a-l-a-n-y-l-g-l-u-t-a-m-i-n-y-l-l-e-u-c-y-l-l-y-s-y-l-g-l-u-t-a-m-y...'_

Tuning out enough to pay more attention to outside his mind, Mephiles figured that Dark was too busy to really hear him, so he was safe to speak.

"Did you know that Dark's least favorite color is the same color as his eyes? The green part?"

Shadow blinked as Rouge raised an eyebrow.

Shadow folded his arms and said "And this is important because..?"

"Iblis' are the same color too. I just find that a bit of a coincidence..."

"Maybe it's a subconscious thing?" Rouge offered. "Considering Iblis took his form and now looks just like him, maybe his mind is telling him something..."

"As far as I've known, they both have always had the same eye color..." Mephiles scratched his ear in thought. "Not that I had really met Iblis personally before now, but in the earlier times, Dark ended up getting both our brains mixed up when he fused to me. We both had a bit of trouble trying to figure out who was thinking what... and of course, I thought we were the same person for a while..."

"And that would explain the seemingly split personality you had."

"I told you I wasn't insane..." Mephiles gave a short nervous laugh. "And I guess when I drowned the one time, that split the both of us mentally, though how, I don't know. Anyway, I'm getting a bit off the subject here. I know that Dark is afraid of Iblis... and that there's some amount of hate in there, as well, but oddly, to me, it doesn't seem like hate of, and more like hate _about._ Y'know?"

"Not really..." Shadow rolled his eyes. "Let's just leave it at they both hate each other, and I hate him. That's easier to understand and remember..."

"But Dark's afraid of Iblis. I don't really see a logical reason other than the previously discussed reason the other day or whenever that was. But Iblis matches up to Dark in ability, since technically they both have to compliment each other in the Chaos Energy it took to make Solaris. So really, Dark shouldn't be afraid of what he can do if he can match up to it. Dark's specialty in fighting seems to be psychological warfare, since he'd rather get in your head and pick at your mind and flaws..."

"Why's it gotta be me? I already know what he does when he starts toying with brains."

"No, I meant 'you' as in referring to a general group of people..." Mephiles quickly clarified, knowing Shadow was still sore about what Dark did to his mind nearly a year ago. "So if Dark is so good at that, what could Iblis possibly do to him that could make him freeze up enough that Iblis can just walk up to him and pull his shoulder out of place? I'm telling you, there was no evidence to suggest that Dark even did anything to stop him. Does that sound like something Dark would do? Just sit there and let himself get hurt? If they're both equal, why is Dark wanting to hide and why is he afraid? Dark never hides, and he's never shown fear before now. And why does he want to keep the answer to that himself?"

"Speaking of which, how is he letting you tell us this without stopping you?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. "I recall you stating earlier that if he caught you doing that again, you'd be comatose for an hour..."

"I have him occupied with spelling a word for me..."

"What word takes _this _long to spell?"

"I honestly don't know, but it's supposed to take someone hours to do so, and he claims he can do it in one."

"What word is it?"

"I really don't know. I tried to make something up, and I guess it really exists. It's some kind of protein, I think he said, and it's nearly a couple hundred thousand letters long... Just me luck that it's an actual word..."

"How far in is he?"

Mephiles tuned his mind in just a little to hear before snapping his eyes back to Shadow and Rouge.

"I dunno... it all sounds the same..."

Having decided that Mephiles was fully recovered from his concussion, the trio returned back to the beach, Mephiles clutching the purple Emerald tightly to counter his fear of water from trying to make him turn tail and make a run for it... screaming shrilly, preferably.

"Now, I know that the energy felt stronger near these tide pools..." The hedgehog racked his brain to try and remember what had been going on before his knock in the head. "But I still don't see it..."

"Might be buried..."

"And we don't have any shovels..." Mephiles drooped his ears a little. "Which means we either dig by hand, or find something for it..."

_'You _are_ a burrowing mammal, you know that, right?'_

Mephiles jumped badly, dropping the Emerald with a startled yell. He had forgotten that Dark might have either finished or given up on spelling.

"Oh, geeze... Dark! Give me a heart attack, why don't you!?" The hedgehog had forgotten to say that to himself, so to his friends, that was a completely bizarre thing to hear from him at the moment. "Oh, sorry... Dark stopped spelling earlier because he figured I wasn't listening anyway..." He explained as he picked the Emerald back up. "Could you excuse me for a moment? Dark has an idea..."

_'I was just saying that it should be no problem for you to dig it out if it was there, since you _can _burrow.'_

_But I'm gonna get sand in my fur... _

_'Stop whining. It'll wash out.'_

_But I don't like the time in between the digging and getting it out of my fur... I'm gonna get all sandy and who knows what else could be in there? And why do I have to dig it out?_

_'Well, I obviously can't do it right now. And it would be just rude to have the bat-'_

_You mean Rouge?_

_'Yes, her-'_

_Well, say her name then. It's not like I call you "That Demon" when I talk about you to other people... so just say her name if you're going to be talking about her._

_'Fine, _Rouge. _Well, like I said, it'd be just rude of you to have her do it, since she's the girl here, and you and Shadow are the boys.' _

_What if she doesn't have a problem with doing it?_

_'You still offer to anyway...'_

_What about Shadow? Can't he do it?_

_'And make him have to get sand out from under his fur? That actually sounds like a pretty neat id-'_

_You're right, that would be just mean..._

Mephiles didn't hear the growl of disappointment Dark gave at missing such an opportunity to pester Shadow from the safety of Mephiles' mind.

_What?_

_'Nothing... just do it your way...'_

"Dark suggests that I could dig it out myself, since I can burrow pretty well..."

Skipping through a a quick discussion of this fact and a little bit later... the trio were all digging anyway, Shadow having managed to find some people who could lend a shovel and a bucket, though that still left Mephiles to hand dig anyway, which to Shadow and Rouge's surprise... he was quite good at it, having already dug twice as deep as either of them, only really guided by energy that the hidden Emerald was putting off.

However, when a high tide decided to wash up near their area, their holes quickly filled with saltwater before anyone could do or say anything to warn him, and as water made it's way over his head, Mephiles scrambled out frantically with a panicked cry, clawing at the wet and falling apart sides of the hole, drenched and dripping with water so much that his quills all hung down before he curled up in a fetal position on the ground not too far from them, clutching his heart and gasping deeply. One could easily see that he wasn't shaking just from having a hundred or so gallons of freezing cold water dumped over his head, judging from the look in his eyes. The word "terror" didn't seem to begin to describe it.

Obviously, Rouge and Shadow saw no point in asking if he was alright when they knew full well that he was terrified of water and was hardly able to keep his head above it. It was obvious that he wasn't alright, and needed to be calmed down before he had a full blown panic attack.

His free hand clawed at the ground for a moment before grabbing the purple Emerald, which he had set down before starting to dig. Breathing stabilizing to a more calm pattern as he sat up, he was still shuddering as if no amount of Chaos Energy could wipe that terrible experience from his mind.

Then he reached into his quills and pulled something out before tossing it onto the ground in front of him with a nervous laugh. It was green and diamond cut, almost ice like at first glance. It was the Chaos Emerald whose color actually lived up to it's name.

"I d-don't think this one does anyth-thing to me..." He stuttered. "I've already t-touched it and s-so far, n-nothing..."

"Are you okay? We didn't even realize that high tide might be starting..." Shadow picked up the green gem, gave it a few tosses to flip it in the air then caught it in one of the backpacks.

"Well, I'm s-still alive, s-so it's not as bad as it c-could have been... let's just get out of here. _Please..._"

* * *

After returning to the hotel room, Mephiles made quick work of cleaning his fur, wanting to get the sand and salt out as quickly as possible for more than just the reason that all that stuff made his fur feel gritty and that it made him itch. He wanted to stay away from water as much as he could for the moment, the memory of what happened a half hour before still sickeningly fresh in his mind.

What had made him so terrified this time was not the fact the he knew that he could drown if he didn't get his head above water fast enough, but what memory it invoked on all his senses.

Walls all around him in a enclosure of water...

No escape. No way out...

Sure, at that time, he was allowed to breathe... but this time saw to it that he'd be cut from that if he hadn't pulled himself out. He was at least thankful that the hole wasn't any deeper than he had made it...

He blinked and realized that somehow he had gone through the whole action of cleaning his fur in the shower and was now drying it all off with a towel without even thinking. Whatever happened... he had done a pretty good job.

_How did..?_

_'You're welcome...'_

_Wait... did you just..?_

_'You were wasting water just standing there...'_

_Uh... that's kinda creepy, when you think about it..._

_'How so?'_

_You just took control of me... just to make me take a shower... and... wait... i-is that... did you just make me use _Rouge's _soap?! _Mephiles' nose had picked up a scent that had been worked into his fur.

_'I dunno... they all look the same to me...' _Dark said with a bit of a yawn to his voice, as if he was starting to get tired.

_I smell like flowers and fruit! My soap stuff is the cucumber melon scented one in the green bottle! I smell like a girl now!_

_'So? It's better than smelling like dead fish and whatever else was in that water over there...'_

Mephiles picked up Rouge's soap to read the bottle, and found that it was some obscurely named blossom and strawberry scented.

_As much as it was nice of you try and help... please leave my hygiene of your list..._

After finishing up, and trying to ignore the collective stare of his friends as his face darkened a shade of red from knowing that it was obvious that the wrong soap was used, he flopped down face first on one of the three beds (yes, three... they got lucky this time.), grabbed the pillow and pulled it over his head as a visual that this had been a pretty bad day anyway.

* * *

Given his tendency to fall asleep normally and the slight exhaustion from having his fight-or-flight response kicked into overdrive, it's no surprise where he was now.

Dark had fallen asleep again as well, and had done so this time with a hand behind his head and his legs crossed while he took up about two of the three cushions on the couch with his back against the armrest, as if he had been sitting there thinking before he nodded off.

By now, Mephiles just found it amusing how Dark slept, since he seemed to dislike the idea of a blanket and pillow, and seemed to lack the need for a security item... save for his notebook, which he had resting on his stomach at the moment with his other hand laying on top of it.

Dark suddenly snorted and jolted awake with a startled look on his face, one hand clutching his notebook and the other seizing whatever part of the couch he could get his fingers around and squeezed as his body tensed and shuddered and his breathing came to a halt.

Mephiles watched cautiously as Dark's eyes wandered aimlessly before settling on him. Dark scanned his eyes across Mephiles from head to foot before breathing a sigh of relief and sinking a bit into couch.

"_You're back early..._" He muttered, as if Mephiles hadn't seen him wake up as if from a nightmare.

"I've been gone fore several hours..." Mephiles said slowly, staring at him with a calculating look. "I... D-did you just-?"

"_No._"

"At least let me finish the sentence before you answer."

"_I told you, no I didn't..._"

"How do you know what I'm going to ask?"

"_Ask what?_"

Mephiles groaned in frustration.

"You are _impossible_ to talk with!"

"_You don't sound like it's very impossible... it sounds quite coherent to me..._" Inside, Dark was grinning to himself. If he kept this up, Mephiles would forget what he was going to ask in the first place, the answer of which Dark wasn't going to admit if he could help it.

However, that smug feeling faded quickly the moment Mephiles voiced his concern anyway.

"Did you have a bad dream or something? Because you looked really scared when you woke up."

Truthfully, for the life of him, Dark had no recollection of what his mind had been doing before he knew that the next thing that was happening was that he had felt an inexplicable surge of terror the first thing when he was conscious again. He barely remembered falling asleep at all, honestly.

"_I wasn't even aware that I was asleep..._" He tilted his head to the side in a habit of curiosity, slightly intrigued with himself. "_The last thing I remember before that was something about... water? Something smells like strawberries..._"

"Yeah, I know... thanks..." Mephiles heaved a sigh through his teeth. "You made me use the wrong soap..."

"_I did? When?_"

"Earlier. Don't you-?" Mephiles stopped suddenly when he realized that Dark looked very bewildered, as if he didn't know what he was talking about at all. He could see that he wasn't faking it all, too... the look in his eyes showed that he was genuinely confused. "Dark? What's the last thing you remember?" He said slowly.

"_... You thought you were going to drown?_"

"That's at least two hours ago! When did you fall asleep?"

"_I said I didn't remember..._" Dark said quietly, looking like he thought Mephiles might have lost it.

"But, you were talking to me after that thing at the beach!" Mephiles exclaimed.

"_No, I wasn't... I would have known..._" Dark looked a little unnerved. "_... I-is there something wrong with me?_"

Mephiles was a bit frantic now. He ran through everything he could recall between the points of when Dark mentioned last remembering, and now.

Nearly having a heart attack under water...

Touching the new Emerald...

Cleaning his fur...

Falling asl-

Wait...

The Emerald had done nothing to Mephiles...

No reaction of any kind. No sudden behavior changes. No enhancement of mental abilities. Nothing...

"Dark? Do you know if you have any reactions with the green Emerald?"

"_I dunno... we'd have to see when we find it._" He muttered with a shrug.

"We did! Today!"

"_What time?_" Dark's eyes rounded in surprise.

Mephiles' however rounded in horror.

"Oh, no... Oh, _NO._" He wailed, now absolutely certain at least ninety five percent that he might have caused Dark's memory to be altered, affected and/or possibly erased a bit if Dark was in fact allergic, for lack of a better word, to the Emerald Mephiles had touched. It made sense to him that Dark might be able to feel it's effects as long as he was still in Mephiles' mind. "Oh, no, Dark! I'm so sorry! I didn't know that was going to happen!"

"W_hat?_" Dark was startled that Mephiles was near sobbing point. He still didn't understand what was going on.

"What if I erased the memories I was trying to help you get back?! What did I _do?!_" Mephiles howled miserably, not realizing until after it happened that he had flung his arms around Dark and was crying in his shoulder.

He looked up at Dark, who merely blinked and shoved him away carefully, then cringed when Mephiles screamed then sobbed, Dark not realizing that if he was normal, he would have instead backhanded Mephiles with a hiss about keeping his hands off him. There was almost a curious blank look to his eyes, as if he was daydreaming, though he was staring Mephiles right in the eyes.

Mephiles took a deep breath and tried to calm down enough to think about this. Maybe he was overreacting, and only really erased the last couple of hours from Dark's mind. He can't have done too much damage if Dark still knew him. But then why was Dark acting like he didn't know how he would normally react to Mephiles' fits? He seemed very lost and confused, as if his brain was in a fog of some kind.

Maybe it wasn't anything to worry about. Maybe it was going to go away in a few hours, and maybe this was temporary. Maybe it wasn't a problem if a couple of hours worth of memory was gone if Dark had simply been here the whole time. He _had _been complaining of boredom, so maybe-

"_Oh! Hey! When did _you_ get here... uh... what's your name again? Starts with an M, doesn't it?_" Dark grinned, clasping his hands together and holding them out to the side slightly as his tail wagged a bit.

Maybe...

…

…

Just Maybe...

…

…

Maybe Mephiles was going to scream again...

…

…

Maybe...

* * *

Well now... this is going to be interesting... and yes... there is a word that long. ^^


	26. What Happened

Like I said... here's another chapter without the wait. ^^

* * *

"Okay, okay! Calm down! Take deep breaths! Deep ones!" Mephiles was talking to himself quickly as he paced back and forth anxiously, shaking his hands in front of himself as if he was going to have a nervous breakdown. "What am I talking about!? _How can I be calm if I just ruined his brain!?_"

Dark was sitting on the ground with his legs crossed Indian style, hands on his ankles and leaning forward a little to watch Mephiles with rapt attention. He frowned a little as if a bit offended.

"_What's wrong with my brain? I feel alright..._"

"No, I mean that I might have inadvertently tampered with both your behavioral part and memory part of it!" Mephiles stopped pacing for a moment to stare at him with a frantic look. "And who knows what other damage I caused and what the consequences are?"

"_You might be overreacting on this a little..._"

"You're _under_reacting!" Mephiles snapped back. "Aren't you even the least bit worried about this?!"

"_That's not even a word... and should I be?_" He blinked and then frowned to himself, reaching a hand up to swat at the air, closing his hand a little as if trying to catch something.

"Dark?"

"_There's little flashes right in front of my eyes... you see them?_"

"No..." Mephiles stared at him before before gasping in realization then chattering really fast to explain his discovery. "Migraine with Aura! Visual disturbances that are a result of an oncoming migraine, which you said usually happens when you have deja vu, and that means that your brain has enough normal in it to be alright! Yes! Thank you!" The last part he shouted as loud as he could to express his relief of the situation.

Dark on the other hand looked anything but relieved.

"_Migraine? Isn't that when you get a really bad headache for hours on end?_"

"Well, yes... and, sadly, you suffer from them, remember?"

"_Well, kinda..._" He said slowly. "_How bad are they again?_"

"It almost made you throw up in front of me..." Mephiles said truthfully, now sounding a little sad that he had to say that. "But on the plus side... I can use my healing powers to tone it down a little for you if it's too bad..."

"_Well, then, I guess that isn't so-_OH, SWEET CHAOS, IT HURTS!! GAH!" Dark exclaimed in pain, taken by surprise by this, and collapsing on his side as his clutched his head. "_WHY WOULD SOMETHING LIKE THIS EVEN EXIST!?_"

Mephiles had his hands clapped to head for a moment, having found that Dark's voice could be quite loud if he wanted it to.

"I honestly don't know. You said it was a neurological syndrome that was coded into your DNA. If I had to guess, I would say that your DNA just happened to line up perfectly enough to make that happen at all."

Dark didn't seem to have heard him as he curled up and rocked a little, perhaps to lull himself into a state of mind where the migraine couldn't follow.

"Dark, calm down. I can help you a little if you stop freaking out!" Mephiles said, catching him by the arm to get his attention and to get him to stop rocking himself. "If it's a migraine, I can tone it down enough to be manageable..."

To his surprise, Dark shook his head slowly, clenching his teeth from agitating his pain even worse as he pulled his arm free.

"_... D-don't want this one... worse one y-yet.._" He managed in his effort to speak through it all. He blinked a couple of times, opening his eyes wider on the last one, shifting them around quickly, but not landing on Mephiles "_... W-where are you? I hear you... but I c-can't see you..._"

"I'm right in front of you!" Mephiles said in surprise while waving his hands in front of Dark's face to show him. "I was just holding your arm, remember?"

"_... M-mephiles..?_"

Said hedgehog froze. Dark only used his real name when he was seriously serious. Dreading what the problem might be now, Mephiles stuttered a "... Y-yeah?"

"_... Get my notebook... and read it too me..._"Dark said almost calmly, before allowing his voice to shiver a bit. "_I-i think I j-just went blind..._"

Dark couldn't see the color drain from Mephiles' face as the hedgehog mumbled a shaky "uh-huh..." and scrambled off to retrieve the book.

"_... I think I left it by the c-couch..._" Dark added, still in shock at the newest symptom. Now that his brain was starting to return back to normal, he remembered that he had experienced blindness during migraines before, but only ones that lasted mere seconds which left his mind woozy for a few minutes after. He estimated this one to be already into it's minute mark and counting.

Despite the name, Dark actually found absolute darkness to be very unnerving. There was no way to see, and he relied on his sight to calculate his next action. Remove his ability to see in any way, and Dark just might go stark raving mad from fear and anxiety.

And it was taking all his willpower and then some to remain calm. There had to be a reason for it. People just don't lose their sight without a reason. He was a sufferer of migraines, and he was having one right now, so what's to say this wasn't the cause?

If that was so, however, then why was he still unable to see a minute and a half in?

"It says that your sight should return in a couple of minutes. You're having an ocular migraine as well, and that's what's causing your blindness." He heard Mephiles' relieved voice say, which helped him calm down a little.

So that's all? Good, he wasn't going insane, and he was going to be fine.

"_Hold the book in front of my face so I can see my sight coming back..._" Dark requested, silently pleased that the spiral book was having some use again. His sight faded back in slowly and he lifted his eyes to lock with Mephiles' to show that they were working again. "_... I've never had that happen for that long of time... that nearly drove me mad again..._"

"How's your head?"

"_... Hurts..._" Dark moaned pitifully. "_... Like always..._"

"I could help a little, if you want..."

"_... You don't want this one..._"

"If it helps, then I'll just bear it..."

"_... As tempting as the offer is... I'll p-pass..._"

"Dark, you just went blind for a couple of minutes! It's obviously hurting you so much that your vision is getting really screwed up!" Mephiles cried out, then immediately toned it down when he saw Dark wince in pain at the volume he was using. "Sorry... didn't mean to. But, I'm serious. If it helps, I'm willing to give it a shot."

"_... No..._"

Mephiles mentally groaned in frustration.

"Why are you being so stubborn right now? I have no problem with helping you."

"_... I dunno... but I have a f-feeling that we shouldn't try right now... it might get worse, or something might go wrong..._"

"A feeling? So you can't tell what it really is?"

"_... There's a strong feeling of dread arising that isn't normal for me to sense..._"

"You just had a panic attack, so maybe it's the aftermath..."

"_... Maybe... maybe not... I can't be sure..._" Dark gritted his teeth as he curled his fingers against his head, having another pulse of pain hit through it. "_... I'd rather assume, though..._"

"Please, can't I help? It looks so painful..."

"_I'll deal!_" Dark snapped at him, making Mephiles jump back in surprise. "_I've been dealing with this _long _before you even knew!_"

"Why is it so hard for you to accept help?" Mephiles said carefully as he held his hand up to his face, twitched his fingers and watch his aura flare up before it dissipated. "And what is there to worry about? Whatever it is, I don't feel anything. And you know that I have that sixth sense thing too..." He look back at Dark. "I mean... I feel perfectly safe right now..."

"_That's because it really has nothing to do with you..._"

"How can you be sure?"

"_Must you question me?_"

"Only because I just want to help you..."

Dark was silent for a moment.

It occurred to him that truthfully, Mephiles was the only one willing to help him at all. Shadow couldn't care less. Rouge hardly knew him at all compared to the others. And to most of the rest of the world... they hardly even knew he even existed.

Realizing that last fact there, Dark cringed a bit in thought, suddenly becoming aware of just how insignificant he was after all. Of an entire world... an entire universe... only a handful of people knew he was alive, or even existed at all. Of that handful, only one even cared that he feelings, no matter how hard it was to reach them, and that one acknowledge that he was a living, breathing, thinking individual, despite not even being of natural origin of life.

And that one was probably the one he had hurt the most over his time of existence...

Perhaps Mephiles really was a stupid hedgehog, or maybe he simply saw something in Dark that Dark was blind to.

Sighing in defeat to himself, he reluctantly agreed, allowed Mephiles to tone his headache down enough to be manageable, Mephiles giving a silent cheer.

At some point not too long after, he decided for himself that enough was enough for the both of them, not wanting to hurt Mephiles with it, and so that Shadow wasn't going to jump to the conclusion that it was his fault.

"Just a little bit longer?"

"_No... I told you that this is a bad one, so too much of it is really going to cause some pain..._" Dark was taking note that Mephiles was starting to clutch the side of his head like he was as well. "_I'm serious. You're going to hurt yourself..._"

"I can last a little bit more... honestly..."

"_Oh, for the love of-_I said no!" Dark barked and grabbed Mephiles' arm to shove his hand away, realizing all too late that he had forgotten the risk of catching Mephiles by the arm. "_Oh, crud... here we go again..._" He muttered as the both of them fell into a trance...

* * *

I'm going to keep a mental log, that way I won't forget anything.

I don't know how this all started, but there are two of us. Brother and me. Names don't really matter. We're just two consciouses in one element. I think we make up some kind of flame... he's the fire of it and I'm the shadows that come from it.

It's pretty neat, actually... we both originate from the same source, yet we are also very different. He tells me my vocabulary is quite large compared to my age (I'm the younger of the both of us, since I was recently aware that I actually existed... or that I was also aware of what that meant!), and that I might be the intelligence of whatever we both make up. That should be cool. That means that I'm very important.

I've guessed that he must be whatever keeps whatever we are alive, so he must be the power. I wonder if more of us will show up, or is the two of us all that's really needed?

Where are we? I really don't know... I can tell you what it looks like since neither of us can really see. We both sense the world around us because we lack true sentience. Sure, we can think, and to a degree feel and sense... but we have no way to show it nor do we have a stable form that can feel. We sense energy and the like, to be more precise.

He feels bigger than me, like he occupies most of our area we exist in. But, remember: He's the raw power of this flame we are, and I really don't need much if I'm simply the consciousness.

At least he's not hot headed (excuse the pun, I swear that was purely unintentional!), and it's a good thing that I have nothing to worry about... I feel like we'll get along just fine...

…

…

…

Something's going on where we aren't... out _there, _I mean...

I don't know what it is, but it;s very powerful... like a... surge? Is that the word? It's an energy... but not like either of us... there's no essence that exists in it... it's just an energy...

I don't like it...

It feels like it's working it's way to where we are...

I really don't like it at all...

…

…

…

Something is wrong here...

Brother seems hostile... that's never happened before... was that my fault? What's going on? I have my suspicions... but I really hope I'm wrong...

…

…

…

It's getting worse... he's getting ideas about things, and I have to play along...

Remember how I mentioned our size comparison a while back? I meant that based on how much energy we give out... he's still more than me... but even more so than before...

I can't explain it... but, it feels like he's becoming... negative energy now... or whatever kind I am, since it seems to be shoving me around like two north ends of two magnets...

Instead of complimenting me, he's repelling me...

That shouldn't be happening... we're supposed to be two halves of the same thing...

…

…

…

I've figured out what the energy source on the outside is.

Electricity.

An element that doesn't coincide well with either of us...

I don't know where it's coming from or why it's favoring us, but I think I've had my intelligence upped enough that I know what that is and what I'm talking about when I speak of it.

I know what it is, and what it gives out... I just don't know what it does yet...

…

…

…

Currents, voltage, amps, ohms... what _are _those, exactly? I don't know where I heard of them, but all I know is that I know there is such a thing... might they have something to do with this electricity?

I'd ask Brother... If I wasn't so worried about him...

…

…

…

This is wrong! So very wrong! What is going on out there!? What's it doing to us?! There's something terribly wrong here!

…

…

Solaris. We are Solaris. I dunno what that means, but I'm going to make sure I don't forget it because it feels important.

Experiments? What is that? Why do I know these words but none of the meanings?

…

…

Brother has gotten restless. He's been challenging me... calling me out, so to speak. I don't say anything. I _can't _say anything. What am I supposed to do about that? I have nothing against him, nor could I hope to win if he does decide to have a go at me...

I'm worried... what if what's happening to him happens to me as well?

…

…

This is illogical! Impossible! This can't be true! This can't be happening to us! Everything, stop! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! It's driving me insane! I'm going mad! This is so wrong! Why is this happening!?

…

…

Burny, burny, melt, melt, everywhere it goes...

Cold and hiding, terrified little brother always knows...

Something's amiss and something's wrong...

That his one and only brother is already gon-

...

Who am I kidding? I have no brother. Heh. Hah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

* * *

Dark was the one who made them lose the connection. He jerked his hand away from Mephiles and scrambled back a bit in a panic, slamming his back into the couch and panting like mad.

"_No..._"He whispered in a moan."_No... No... No. No. No. No. _NO!" He clutched his head and wailed in misery. "_I thought I destroyed that one! No! No! No! No! No! Nooo!_"

Mephiles was still shock still. His brain was still trying to sort this all out. Slowly, he turned his eyes back on Dark, who was more or less throwing a tantrum, howling laments and having thrown himself on the floor and pounding his fists on the ground.

"D-dark?" Mephiles stuttered, unsure of what to do or say next. "What was... d-did that... Wh-what happened?"

"_That was never supposed to come back! It doesn't exist! It's all a lie, right?! Am I right?!_" Dark was wailing, and that was distressing Mephiles.

Crawling his way over to Dark slowly, he stopped right in front of him and stared before asking: "Dark, what happened? What happened to you and Iblis? When you were still part of the Solaris Project... What happened?"

Dark stop screaming and clamped his mouth shut, staring at Mephiles in horror. He quickly shifted his eyes to the ground and shook his head slowly as Mephiles asked again. And again. And again...

Dark finally gave in enough to feel like he was sound enough to explain.

"_... Those stupid scientists ruined him..._" He muttered, still not looking up from the ground. "_... Because Iblis was older than me and accounted for most of the flame... he took the near full force of the experiments... it drove him insane over time... well... it did to both of us... but he was the first to go..._" He shuddered, this time speaking with a bit of a break to his voice. "_... He got more aggressive while I became more intelligent... or... rather... my thoughts were far ahead of my mind... because I guess I wasn't smart enough to have figured out what was happening before it was too late for either of us... I was too stupid to have known what was going on..._"

"Dark, it wasn't your fault..." Mephiles wanted to cry, but he was still too shocked for that emotion to reach his heart. "You couldn't have done anything to stop it..."

"_How do you know!? I was the smart one! I should have done something before it went too far!_" Dark snapped his head up and glared.

To Mephiles' great surprise, Dark's muzzle was tear stained. Mephiles fell back a bit in shock. Dark _never _shed any tears before! Dark was too tough to break. He had the emotion range of a rabid wolverine.

No... it was obvious right here, right now that he had a heart. He had one long ago. When he had a brother...

And those... along with his mind... had been shattered a long, long time ago.

* * *

Fact: This was all originally not part of the story. I made this up while playing Spider Solitaire.

Other Fact: I almost had Dark refer to Iblis as "the light" when he was explaining the two elements they were, until I remembered that might have been interpreted wrong... uh... remember that recalled talking doll a while back?

Yet Another Fact: Yes... I did, however, plan something of this magnitude to happen.


	27. Another Way

Well, as a bonus, I just finished up this chapter. It seems like a few people wanted Dark out of Mephy's mind, so I bent some originally rules to speed things up. Honestly... I was getting sick of waiting too. ^^;

Now here is a test that I'm a little anxious on what you Dark fans might think. There is going to be a revolutionary change with him, as far a sanity goes. But I will assure you that he will still have the same general behavior, so his lash out tendencies are still there, and so on.

I did have something like this planned before, but I'm a little worried how well this will go down with everyone. I hope it's not too... sappy? Oh, geeze... I'll let you just read it, and you can share what you think in the reviews.

The next chapter is in the works already...

* * *

"_I told you I didn't want them back! I told you to leave it alone!_" Dark shouted, taking his hand and smacking it into Mephiles' arm, who flinched. "_I told you to back off!_" He aimed another hit for the shoulder, Mephiles pulling away and shrinking back. "_I told you to stop meddling!_" He smacked him in the face, making Mephiles whimper and shield it with a hand. "_I told you-!_" Dark's other hand joined in. "_To!_" He was on his feet and used one to shove Mephiles to the ground on his back. "_Stop!_" He kicked him with the bottom of his foot to roll him over. "_Trying!_" He kicked again, Mephiles curling up protectively. "_To!_" He stomped on Mephiles' foot, making the hedgehog yelp in fright. "_Help!_"

He had his fist up, ready to hit Mephiles again, before he gasped and realized exactly what he was doing. Mephiles was curled up in a tight ball, bristling his quills out and shaking. Dark trailed his eyes back to his hand, seeing how tight he had it clenched. He unclenched it and let his arm drop to the his side and bowed his head and sighed deeply.

"_... Now you see why I didn't want your help..._" He said softly, dropping himself to the ground and sitting on his knees, hunched over defeatedly. "_... I purposely fractured my mind so I would forget... It was a long shot of a plan, but I Saw that it was the best and most likely to succeed plan to do. I just didn't account for you into the equation... you ruined the math... you ruined my whole plan..._"

Mephiles ears twitched and he lifted his head up slowly to look at Dark, who had his head low and eyes closed. Wincing from a bruise that had settled into his back from Dark's foot as he pulled himself off the ground to be level with Dark, who lifted his head up to look at him. Mephiles inhaled softly in surprise: Dark's eyes were sane! There was no glitter of madness behind them, not even a trace now.

"Oh, Dark... I'm so sorry... I had no idea..."

"_... You got what you wanted... are you happy now?_"

Mephiles shook his head. "No... that wasn't right what happened to you..."

"_...Who cares? It's already done... you can't change it..._"

"Maybe not... but maybe… well... I could..."

"_No... just... stop..._" Dark pushed himself from the ground to turn his back and pulled his knees to his chest. "_Why do you even care? I've done nothing but hit, attack, smack, slap, claw and even as far as nearly fatally injure you... I've insulted you... I've mocked you... I've degraded you... I've chiseled away the stability of your mind... I've come close to nearly destroying you completely... I deserve nothing short of what I've done to you..._"

There was a long silence before Mephiles spoke again.

"... I forgive you, y'know..."

Dark's head snapped up and he spun his head to look over his shoulder. Then he narrowed his eyes and shook his head slowly as he looked away again.

"_... Impossible... illogical... You're either stupid, or you're merely toying with me..._"

"Not everyone is out to get you, Dark..." Mephiles crawled over to where he was now sitting in front of Dark, who tried everything to avoid eye contact. "And not everything is like a math problem. Life is unpredictable. Some have it easy, and some don't. And those who don't who push through and still do good enough with themselves are strong..."

"_I ran away. I didn't do anything... I tried to escape it all, I tried to cut my ties to it... and it still came back to me..._"

"What did you learn from all of this? Since the beginning?" Mephiles said, tilting his head to the side a little.

"_That it's hopeless. That I'm weak. That I don't even-_"

"I'll tell you what you learned, Dark." Mephiles cut across him sharply. "I think you learned that no matter what you do to me, I'm not going to go away. We're like magnets now... opposite ends. We made up one person at one time, and that will never change. You're my negative, and I'm your positive. You might have lost your brother... but I did too... and my sister and my mother. We've both lost everything... and through you, I've picked myself back up and started over. You might not have meant to at first, but through you, I met Shadow and Rouge, and they are my family now. My brother and sister. My best friends. At times, they are like my parents. Because I was mistaken to be all of you, and I was kidnapped, I met Rae and Jak, and through them, I met Rae's friend, Ky. Because of you, the Chao egg hatched me twins, and my family got bigger. Because I had Krystal and Sharpe, I found Kai, and adopted him. All through you... and now..." He reached his right hand out, palm up, and smiled a little. "I think I've waited too long to thank you the right way. You have nothing, anymore. Nothing but me... and I can help you so much, now. I won't expect you to jump at such an offer, but I want you to think it over if you want to... but..." He leaned closer a little to keep Dark's attention. "Dark... if you want... I'll be your brother now. We look like twins anyway, and it seems like I know you as well as you do the both of us. What do you say?"

Dark stared at him with disbelief. He blinked and shook his head slowly, shoving Mephiles' hand away.

"_No... I can't. You're the only one willing to even speak to me civilly, and if you get any closer to me now... Iblis will be sure to make quick work of destroying that._" Dark frowned to himself mostly. "_I must decline the offer right now. I can't afford to put you at any more risk than you are now. Shadow would be sure to kill me for that if any thing were to go terribly wrong..._"

"I see... well..." Mephiles drew his hand back. "Just so you know... this offer will never expire. I'll be ready when you are. Remember that..."

"_... I also haven't been very honest about these Emeralds..._" Dark said quietly, drawing back into his invisible shell, and looking very nervous.

"What? We only need two more and you can get out of here..."

"_Yeah... a-about that..._" Dark's ears pulled back and flattened against his head as his tail tucked close. "_Well... you only needed three to get me out..._"

There was a long paused and Mephiles' wide eyes went from shock to pure annoyance. He glared suddenly and went over the top.

"_WHAT?!_ DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I WENT THROUGH TO GET THE ONES THAT WE HAVE NOW?!" Mephiles shouted, easily forgetting his previously calm disposition. "Since the third one was found, I have been poisoned, Shadow was too, I had to escape Iblis while still suffering from hypothermia, I had to chase a rabbit _and _I could have drowned earlier! I've even had to care for your sorry butt, and had to take care of your illnesses and do first aid on you! And _now _you tell me that we could have gotten you out by now?!"

Dark cringed before explaining.

"_I did it for the best interest. Shadow would have been sure to cause problems with me because he doesn't understand. The tension that would have arisen would have been trying on all of our nerves and you would have taken it the worse, because you would be trying to make peace between us..._" Dark didn't look him in the eye. "_You would still have to get the rest before Iblis did, and Shadow would not trust me near the ones you have now..._"

"I don't care! The both of you need to stop it! He hit me in the back of the head because I said he was stubborn like you!" Mephiles folded his arms and pouted. "He's not going to listen to be when I try and defend you-"

"_What makes you think he'll listen to me? He hates me as much as I strongly dislike him..._"

"I'll make him if I have to. He won't purposely do anything to me."

"_Unless of course you make him mad..._"

"It's happened before, and I can take care of it. Trust me." Mephiles lifted his eyes at him. "But first, he needs to know about what really happened."

"_No! He won't get it!_" Dark dropped his hands to the ground to tilt himself forward to stare at Mephiles. "_As far as he's concerned, he'd rather make friends with a bug under a rock than listen to me. Him and I are just not compatible enough to be civil towards each other..._"

"He will if I ask him to..."

"_That will only last shortly..._"

"Shadow has a heart." Mephiles looked lifted his ears up a little. "It's hard to get to it, because he tries to be tough, but he has a heart, and it's a big one. Sure, he can be a jerk sometimes, and yes, he can be mean and of course, he's easily set off... just like you... but I live with him. He's only like this to you because he doesn't approve of what you did. More importantly, he's a lot like you, and seeing what you've done without even thinking makes him question himself. You both remind each other of what you could have been. Shadow nearly went bad once, and he's never let himself forget it, and I don't even think he forgave himself yet. You remind him of that. He never told me that, but I can sense that. Do you know why you hate him?"

"_I just do..?_"

"No... because he's what you couldn't get to be. You're both results of experiments, and he became loved by the world, while you remained forgotten. You came back to the world, and no one care. You thought Shadow should have at least remembered you, but you met the wrong Shadow..."

"_No I didn't... he sealed me over ten years ago, and flat out forgot._"

"Yes, you did. And the Shadow I know didn't even go back to that time yet. He only went back in time because the Scepter broke. The Shadow that sealed you, and the Shadow I know are different. The Shadow I know sealed you in another time. And that you from then hates the wrong Shadow as well... The Shadow I know never met the you of now until the Scepter broke."

"_This is illogical. That means that... that... everything I knew about... that I... I've been..._" Dark took that fact hard in the face. "_... It doesn't add up. I _know_ that it was the same Shadow. He just purposely forgot..._"

"Time travel is just one big headache..." Mephiles said simply. "Those who can and have done it create paradoxes and ruin things without meaning too. Those that exist in the seconds that move forward suffer more than those who travel between."

"_Then that means..._"

"Neither of you are at fault here. Blame the you and Shadow of another time, not the ones that exist here..."

What an epiphany! An enlightenment, even! How was it that Mephiles could see that, but Dark never even gave it a second thought, and simply settled on the most confusing aspect as the answer?

"_... I underestimated your intelligence. You are truly extraordinary in understanding what those cannot..._" Dark looked up with a shadow of a grin. "_For that, I apologize._"

"I learned how to from you..."

"_Very well then. Go and explain it to Shadow and then free me. From then, I will assist you in your search for the remaining Emeralds._"

"Is that a promise?" Mephiles grinned back.

"_The first I have ever made, and intend on keeping._" Dark gave a nod and smiled.

"Very well. I will see to a door is made here, and if it goes well, you can exit through there when I use the Emeralds."

"_A door? Are you sure? You trust me enough to allow that?_"

"I said I forgive you. Yes." Mephiles nodded. "I just have to touch all the Emeralds at once, right?"

"_But, won't the red one hurt you?_"

"It's only for a short time. I can handle it..." Mephiles stood up and snapped his fingers. An oak wood door appeared, creating a dark wall for it to stay. "I'll explain it all to them, and I will see you shortly..."

"_Mephiles..._" Dark said slowly, looking up.

"Yeah?"

Dark paused, before standing up and looking at him on the same level. Not as if he was superior, and not like he was staring Mephiles down, but... like an equal.

He grabbed him and pulled him forward to throw his arms around him in an embrace.

"Dark?" Mephiles said in surprise as Dark put his head on his shoulder.

"_... I just can't thank you enough..._" Dark's voice whispered. "_... Your heart is simply too big..._"

Mephiles laughed.

"I'll see you soon... and not in here, hopefully..."

"_See you then..._"

**I can't believe the words I hear  
It's like an answer to a prayer  
When I look around I see  
This place, this time, this friend of mine**

**I know its hard  
but you found somehow  
To look into your heart  
and to forgive me now  
You've given me the strength to see  
just where my journey ends  
You've given me  
the strength to carry on**

**I see the path from this dark place  
I see my future  
Your forgiveness has set me free  
On and I can see another way  
I can face another day!**

* * *

"Well, that totally blows everything I've ever known out of the water..." Shadow said, hands behind his head and reclining on one of the three beds in the room with his eyes closed. "But he still lied to you about how many we needed..."

"Only because he was afraid of what you would do." Mephiles shook his head.

"He's going to have to work harder to get my full trust..." Shadow said calmly before shifting his eyes to Rouge, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, then back to Mephiles, who was in the middle of his. "But I see that there's some plausibility here, so I'll be more open if it means that much to you..."

"Well, that's more than I expected from you..." Mephiles said truthfully.

"After I hit you in the head earlier, I realized just how far I've taken my thoughts about him, and decided that if you were willing to give him your all... that I should at least be by you on that." Shadow opened one of his red eyes and shifted it to Mephiles and smirked a little. "Truthfully, your gut feelings have never been wrong before now. You know what's going to go wrong, and I'm being stupid trying to ignore it. The last time I ignored you, you almost lost your mind and tried to kill yourself because you thought it was the best way to keep me safe, and the time before that, you drowned after you had been kidnapped. That's two times in a row that I've ignored you, and we almost lost you because of that..."

"Shadow..."

"No, hear me out on this. I'm not saying that I'm going to just give him all my trust all at once, but I will give him the benefit of a doubt if that's all you want at the very least." Shadow moved to the edge of his bed. "If Dark wants more trust, he's going to have to earn it from me. In short, I will treat him the same way I treated you in the beginning, and he gets no special privileges. But..." Shadow narrowed his eyes a little. "... If for any reason, you get hurt, or he turns on us... I terminate the agreement."

"Can't you be a little lenient on the getting hurt part?" Mephiles reasoned. "I'm accident prone, and you can't blame him if I trip and hit something."

"Fine. If there is any lasting damage or it seems bad. Is that a little better?"

"Better..."

"Okay."

"Thank you, Shadow..." Mephiles nodded then looked at Rouge. "Rouge? Are you okay with this?"

"Why are you asking me? I really don't know him that well..."

"But you did more or less get to converse with him when he fused to Shadow." Mephiles said. "That was him who nearly there when him and Shadow nearly drowned when they fell in the water in Soleanna. I was still comatose at the time. You were the one who pulled him out of the water..."

"So that means he's got a debt to you, Rouge!" Shadow lifted his ears up a bit. "What a great little thing there... that means that he _has _to be on his best behavior, since you saved his life..."

"Only because I didn't want you to drown, Shadow." Rouge looked up at the ceiling. "I had no idea what I would be getting us into..."

"You only did that because of Shadow?" Mephiles looked at her. "Well, what about... what... Me..?" He stammered.

"That was before we knew you existed. Trust me... if that happened now, you'd have been in mind too." Rouge assured him.

"... I could have died before I even knew I was there..." Mephiles said quietly. "That's... really... that's insane..." He paused then shook his head roughly to snap out of it. "So it's settled? Dark's staying with us?"

"Until otherwise..." Shadow said, picking up the backpacks with the Emeralds and tossing them at Mephiles.

Mephiles caught them and smiled.

"I think purple first, then yellow, aqua, red, then green.." He said.

"Why green last? Why not red, since that hurts you more?"

"Dark had a bad reaction with the green one, so I want to avoid that as much as possible... It wiped out a couple of hours of memory from his mind."

"But the red one hurts you. I remember that." Shadow raised an eyebrow. "That's the only time I've seen you scream as much as when your ankle was broken."

"Only because it burns." Mephiles explained. "It doesn't just burn my hands, but all of me. Inside and out... it just doesn't work well with my Aura."

"Are you sure you want to do that then?"

Mephiles paused before nodding slowly.

"I promised. And I'm sure that by showing him that I trust him, that it might help tension overall. Remember... he's mostly anxious about what you might do..." Mephiles pulled the purple Emerald out of the pack.

"Well, don't forget how he's almost killed you completely..."

"And what about when he didn't let me die?" Mephiles set the purple Emerald on his lap and pulled out the yellow one and followed suit with the the next before pausing at the red one.

_Oh, geeze... I was afraid that I was going to freeze up here anyway..._

_'You only need three in the least. Pick out the ones that don't do anything bad...'_

_But the green is one of those, and it might wipe your brain again. What if you forget what we just discussed? There could be a serious problem... and that aqua one makes me all crazy... _

_'Touch that one last, then. Hold the purple, since that clears your mind. The yellow will help you sense if something is amiss. Then, take your pick...'_

_Aqua then..._

_'Be careful...'_

"Dark told me I really only needed three. He insisted that I use that green one, but that's the one that wiped his brain shortly..." Mephiles looked up at Rouge and Shadow. "The green does nothing to me, but if Dark's brain is wiped again, he might forget what we all talked over, and would be back to the other Dark. I won't touch the red if I can help it, so that leaves this aqua one, which could make me lose it for a little bit. I think that one has the best option of the remaining three. If I do go crazy, even just a little... please do something about it, alright?"

"I'll keep you away from any avalanches..." Shadow almost cracked a smile.

"Too soon, Shadow..." Mephiles nearly glared. "I'm serious. If I black out, I don't want to hear that I hurt someone, or tried to jump off something..."

"Alright... What? You think we'd let you do that?"

"Of course not... I just don't want to hear it..."

And with that, Mephiles grabbed the aqua one and waited.

An odd color aura surrounded him and he watch a red one peel off of his purple one and sink to the floor. A dark shape of mist pulsed in the middle of it and took the form of Dark, who was sitting with a dazed look in his eyes. He blinked and looked up at Mephiles, then at Rouge and finally Shadow before looking at his own hands and placing one on his arm, as if to see if it was actually tangible. He grinned and started laughing out of both amazement and pure joy.

"_Yes! It actually worked! I'm here! This is so-_!"

He didn't quite finish. A fist knocked into the back of his head and he fainted when he hit the floor with a loud **THUMP**.

Mephiles and Rouge turned their wide eyes slowly to Shadow, who was standing there looking from side to side before shrugging.

"What? I said I was going punch him in the head the next time I saw him. And he lied about how many Emeralds we needed. I was just making sure he was actually there..."

"Oh, this is going to be a long next however many days this is going to be..." Mephiles slapped a hand to his own head and groaned.

* * *

Old habits are hard to break, eh Shadow? ^^

That part I had planned for a while, and even ran the idea through with a few friends, and they all agreed to have it put in.

So the plot twist of the era... okay... maybe smaller than that... but anyway, Dark lied about how many Emeralds they needed to get him out of Mephy's mind. To put that into perspective, that means that they could have freed him back in chapter 13 if he had shared that little tidbit. Personally, I think that justifies Shadow's punch there, doncha think?

As for that little thing in bold up there near the scene change line, that was a snippet out of one of my favorite songs, from one of my favorite movies, by one of my favorite artists. In that order: No Way Out (Single Version), from Disney's Brother Bear, by Phil Collins. Yes... it's not Linkin Park for a change. I actually listen to a bunch more songs than you would guess, and I simply adore Phil Collins work on Tarzan and Brother Bear. The guy has an amazing voice, and the lyrics he makes are very moving. I have both soundtracks... not downloaded, but I actually went out and bought the CDs.

There was two versions of that song made for the movie, with the movie version, which was short and sad with no happy ending because it's placed no where near the end, and the other, which was given a snippet in the credits and soundtrack purchasers were treated to the full 4:17 mins, where the story is told, and ends on a happier note when the person is forgiven and rejoices. That is the one you want to look up to feel the full effect, but feel free to search up the other version as well. YouTube is a wonderful place to find them. ^^

Call me weird, or a big softy, or whatever... I just love the music. ^^;


	28. Mind Freak

Alright... Halloween is nearing, and I figured instead of another special like I've done the last couple of times, why not include the fear element in the oncoming chapters? We're due for an Iblis attack anyway... :D

* * *

"What if you gave him a concussion?" Mephiles looked at Shadow in disbelief. "I already told you he suffers from migraines, and that could easily set one off. You told me you were going to _try _and be nice to him! Why did you do that!?"

"I'm sorry. It was a reflex. It won't happen again. I promise."

"What are we going to do now? We can't just leave him there."

"Put him on your bed."

"Why mine?"

"He's not getting mine."

"_Fine..._" Mephiles rolled his eyes and pulled Dark up off the ground and onto the bed.

Dark groaned and held an hand to his head as he started to come to, having not been knocked out for too long.

"_... Ugh... what just hit me..?_" He moaned. "_... I think I can actually feel my heart beating in my head... hrmmmm..._"

Mephiles glared at Shadow briefly before making a cover up.

"... I dunno... maybe you didn't react well to something..."

"_... Maybe... but it feels like something slammed into my head..._"

Shadow had to stifle a laugh. Dark sounded so pathetic right now.

Then he realized that Dark was actually in pain. An odd concept to him... the cold, heartless, selfish demon that he had face off against a couple of times over the past year... could feel pain.

_How... bizarre..._

"You gonna be alright?"

"_... I've had worse..._" Dark opened an eye and forced a laugh.

Shadow's ears shifted back a fraction.

Dark's torn ear flickered and he looked over at Shadow, giving him a rather alien look that Shadow would not expect of him.

"_... I suppose I should thank you for allowing this..._" Dark avoided eye contact. There was always something about the way Shadow stares that would remind anyone of the alpha male in a pack, and anyone not used to him might end up looking down so not to seem like they were challenging him. "_... I can imagine that it's not very easy for you to trust me..._"

"Not very... but like I said..." Shadow folded his arms. "I'll give you a chance. I'm letting my guard down because Meph insists on it. Screw this up, and I won't treat you any different than normal. You best be on your best behavior."

"_... Agreed..._" Dark nodded. "_... I suppose now is a good time to inform you that I'm a bit more... Mobian now._" He looked up slightly, keeping his head down still, but shifting his eyes up. "_Meaning that I now have the very same drives and needs as Mephiles here. Such as resting, and it would appear that I have gained the need to eat, since I've become aware of a gnawing feeling that matches to what I've observed in Mephy..._" Dark sunk a little in embarrassment as his pale muzzle flushed a little. "_In other words... I have to eat now too._"

"Do you know how? We had to teach Meph..."

"_Well, of course I do!_" Dark flashed an expression of annoyance. "_I've never _needed _to until recently, and I've tried it myself when I was in my own mind. I'm not an idiot._" Dark folded his arms and stuck his nose in the air.

"So, why tell us if you know how?" Shadow rolled his eyes and shook his head a little.

There was an awkward pause before Dark finally spoke again, this time seeming like he was humiliated at what he was going to say.

"_I'm a vegetarian..._" He said a bit more quietly. "_I don't like the idea of eating anything that was a living breathing thing before it was killed..._"

"Whoa!" Mephiles exclaimed, perhaps the most surprised about next to Shadow, of course. "I mean, well... I guess it does make a bit of sense. If you don't like hurting something weaker than you, then I guess that means that you'd refuse to eat it too. Wow... that's something new on me." Dark glared a little. "Hey, don't be embarrassed! I'm lactose intolerant. I have to be careful about what I eat too."

Dark and Shadow must have been thinking the same thing.

_How much longer till this is over..?_

* * *

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Mephiles caught up to Dark several hours after setting him loose, having found him outside the hotel and near the empty recreation area. "It's not a good idea to be out by yourself, in case Iblis tries something."

"_You sure you're not here because Shadow sent you?_" Dark sent a slight glare at him as he leaned up against a tree. "_I wouldn't be surprised... I can't shake the feeling that he thinks I'm up to something..._"

"Well, are you?" Mephiles said seriously, frowning a little.

"_What do you think?_" Dark raised an eyebrow as he reached his hands behind his head to cushion it from the tree trunk. "_What could I possibly be up to now if I just found out just this afternoon that I was actually... well..._"

"Good?" Mephiles sat on the grass and picked up a stick to scrape the layer of bark of with his claws. He looked up at Dark, who was giving him a bizarre look that seemed like it was more meant for himself than Mephiles. The hedgehog grinned. "I know that it's going to take a while to get used to, but trust me... it sure beats being alone."

"_That is, if Shadow doesn't-_"

"Give him some time. It takes a while..." Mephiles assured, sliding his claw along the side of the stick carefully to peel of the top layer. "But it's a fact that he actually liked me before I even knew. I thought it took nine months, but it was really less than half a year..."

"_That being the case... I'll be gray and senile before I learn otherwise._" Dark sighed. "_Perhaps there will be hair growing out of my ears as well..._"

It took Mephiles a moment to realize Dark was actually joking about this lightly, judging from the small grin that he had placed on his face.

"That was actually kinda funny. And not the mean kinda 'I shouldn't laugh at that, but I can't help it' kind, either." Mephiles laughed a bit.

"_Hmmm..._" Dark simply made a sound, not sure of what else to say. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes to just listen to everything around him. He could never once recall a time where he just just put his great hearing to good use...

And perhaps this time, he wish he hadn't.

Both ears flickered as well as Mephiles' and he cursed to himself under his breath, though Mephiles still heard him.

"What?"

"_... Get out of sight now..._" He said very low, scanning his eyes across the area quickly. "_... Something is not right..._"

"... I know... there's a sudden change in the air..." Mephiles said slowly, setting the stick down and getting up carefully, looking around as well. "This would be a bad time for Iblis to show up right now... No one would even know..."

"_Precisely... The last thing I need right now is for something to happen to you under my watch..._" Dark pushed himself away from the tree and peered passed the trunk. "_You go back to Shadow and Rouge... now._"

"What about you?"

"_You're more valuable. We can't afford for him to get a hold of you at all..._"

"Uh... D-dark?"

Dark didn't like the sound of that stutter. Tensing momentarily, he spun around and found to his great horror that Iblis was there, smirking at him as he had Mephiles in a sleeper hold from behind. The poor hedgehog was terrified and trembling, tears falling down his face as stared at Dark pleadingly.

Dark growled and formed a Dark Spike in his hand, quite capable of missing Mephiles with it, but Iblis held up a hand to wave a finger casually before drawing a razor sharp claw close to the carotid artery in Mephiles' neck.

"_Now, now, Dark... are you sure you want to risk me taking a hit at this?_" Iblis sneered as Mephiles' eyes went nearly blank as his "pupils" shrunk to the size of pinpricks when the claw brushed against his throat. "_Or I could just tear out his trachea right now and leave him here for his friends to find. I'm sure you'll be the in blame..._"

"_Let him go._" Dark hissed, fighting himself with his own will to stay standing right where he was. His brain was screaming at him to run and keep on doing so, but he wasn't going to leave Mephiles alone with Iblis.

"_... Or, if you want... I could just snap his neck right now._" Iblis chuckled, squeezing his arm a bit to do so as Mephiles' eyes snapped wide open and he whimpered. "_... Given the options... that's actually the least painful... so I've heard. But if I do it wrong, he'll just be in pain until he dies, or if he lives... he might be able to use his legs again... or the rest of him, to be quite frank..._"

"_Leave him out of this. He has nothing to do with any of this..._" Dark growled, trying to keep eye contact with Mephiles, who was looking like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "_It's me you want..._"

"_On the contrary, Little Brother... It _is _him I want._" Iblis cooed mockingly, making Dark cringe in shock. "_What better way to break you than to break your new little friend?_"

"_No, please don't..._" Dark shook his head and raised his hands up. Mephiles blinked and snapped out his daze long enough to realize that there was a trace of fear in Dark's voice, even if it was only a little. "_Don't hurt him... do what you want to me, but don't do anything to him._"

"_You're so weak. Honestly._" Iblis spat at him suddenly. "_That is why I will always be better than you. You give in too easily when you care about anything. That's your problem, and it always will be..._"

"_Just tell me what you want from me, and I do it if you just let him go..._"

"_You know what I want, Dark._" Iblis' eyes glinted. "_A lot of things, but for now, I'll let him live if you trade me the Emeralds that have been collected for him. Five Chaos Emeralds is well worth more than his life, don't you think?_"

Dark was silent. Mephiles was worth more than just five Emeralds! This was his life they were bargaining for here! He was a living person, not a bunch of magical rocks!

"_What if I take his place..?_"

"_Oh, no... I want you to suffer knowing that you're the reason I got the Emeralds, Dark._" Iblis smirked and bared his fangs. "_You should have known about the Hedgehog's Dilemma. The closer you got to this one... the more it hurt both of you..._"

Dark snarled to himself softly. Leave it to Iblis to use a literary device to describe the situation.

"_That pun was so bad, it could make a skunk run for it..._" He said as comeback.

"_I'm waiting, Dark._" Iblis reminded him. "_The longer you wait, the more likely I'll decide for you..._"

"_If you so much as snap a quill on his head... I'll break you in two..._"

"_If you had the guts for that sort of fun, you'd have done it years before now..._" Iblis smirked viciously. "_Tick tock... the clock is moving..._"

"_You better be here when I get back..._"

"_Bring his friends if you want. I'd love them see just how much you screwed up..._"

Dark gave Mephiles an apprehensive look before spinning around and bolting for the door, a little upset that it was a pull one and not a push one, shaving a bit of his time allowance down.

"_So, little hedgehog... while we wait... do you want to hear about how I killed your family? In case he doesn't come back? This might be your only time to hear it..._"

Mephiles tried to shake his head the best he could and whispered in protest.

Iblis smirked again and placed two fingers on the hedgehog's forehead.

"_Oh, trust me... it's faster this way... with that little retrocognition power of yours..._"

Mephiles' eyes shot even wider when a connection was made and he could see the cages come into view.

"... N-no... don't... want... p-please... no..."

…

…

Cursing to himself repeatedly, Dark scrambled up the stairs on all fours to reduce the chance of tripping and tumbling down as he counted four flights of stairs and made it to the landing. Counting seven doors, he jumped and curled into a ball and spun in place on the floor before taking off and through the door in a shower of splinters, receiving a stream of curses from Shadow.

"Dark! What in the he-!?"

"_No time! Iblis! Here! Now! Outside! Has Mephy! Wants Emeralds!_" Dark explained as briefly as he could.

"Wait, _what?!_" Was the response he got from both the hedgehog and the bat.

"_Did you not just hear me?! Iblis is outside, he's got Mephiles and he wants to trade him back for the Emeralds!_" Dark jumped up and yanked a few pieces of wood out of his quills. "_If I don't get back there soon with them, Mephy might not be alive in the next half hour!_"

Shadow blinked and narrowed his eyes questioningly.

"How did he get Meph in the first place?"

"_Heck if I know! All I know was that Mephy and I were talking, then something felt wrong outside. I told him to get back in here, and the next thing I know, Iblis has him in a choke hold and is currently holding a claw to his neck!_"

"And you just left him out there?"

"_I had no choice!_" Dark cried out. "_Iblis will kill him if I did nothing at all! Please, believe me!_" Dark pointed to his his eyes with both his hands. "_Look at me, look at my face. Am I lying? Does it look like I made this up? I tried offering myself in exchange, but Brother won't let me! It either the Emeralds or Mephiles!_"

Shadow stared. He knew Dark to have been an elaborate liar, and he knew he was very convincing. But as far as he could tell by bringing up examples to himself, he took note that Dark never played it off with fear. Either this was new... or Iblis really was outside with Mephiles.

Dark watched anxiously as Shadow grabbed both backpacks, and gestured to both him and Rouge.

"Alright... I believe you." He said. "And I have an idea."

"_No time for that! Don't you get it!?_"

"Actually, with these babies..." Shadow smirked a bit to himself as he pulled out the green one for a moment. "I think we can buy ourselves all the time in the world..."

…

…

"_He's taking too long. Perhaps he just ran away._" Iblis said, taking his hand off Mephiles' head and breaking him free of the connection.

Mephiles was shaking even more so now. He had never wanted to see that... _any_ of that. Panting badly enough to cause another panic attack, he couldn't hold back his tears well enough.

"_Not that that surprising. Little Brother has always had a habit of running away..._"

Mephiles bared his teeth and bit down on Iblis' arm, only to receive a tighter squeeze around the neck, making Mephiles choke for air.

"_Little brat..._" The flame growled at him in his ear._ "At this rate, you'll be dead before he gets back... assuming he does, that is..._"

"_Let him go, now._"

Iblis looked up casually and smirked.

"_Wonderful. So they agreed to it as well. Figures... I hardly see why this little pest is so important to everyone..._" Iblis released the choke hold and Mephiles tried to make a run back to them, only to get caught by the quills, to which he screamed in pain and fear. "_Not so fast. The deal was that I get the Emeralds in exchange for you. I still have nothing, so if you want to be let go, you better pray that they toss them over here..._"

"We'll toss them once you let him go." Shadow said, making eye contact with Mephiles, who shook his head just enough to tell them that he didn't approve of the idea.

"Shadow, no! I'm not worth it!"

"I'm not going to let him kill you! You've worked too hard to let some nut kill you in the worse way possible!" Shadow snapped. "You are going to grow old, get gray and die when you've had a long and wonderful life!"

"You don't know if that's true! _Please_ don't give him the Emeralds!"

Shadow said nothing to him and moved back to Iblis.

"Let him go now, or these..." Shadow held up the backpacks in hand by the straps. "You no get, you hear?"

"Shadow!_ No!_" Mephiles was in tears again.

Iblis let go of Mephiles' quills and shoved him forward.

"_Go on then..._" He grinned viciously at the crystal hedgehog. "_Hurry up before I decide to have both... go crawling back to your friends..._"

Mephiles trembled and swallowed hard before taking a deep breath and was back over with his friends with hardly enough time for anyone to utter a word. Without pausing, he clamped onto Rouge, and hid his face, sobbing quite hysterically.

"Are you alright, Mephiles?" Rouge said carefully, putting an arm around him and placing the other hand on his head in an attempt to calm him down.

"No! Obviously not!" He screamed. "You're going to let him have the Emeralds, and we're all going to die eventually, and he made me see what he did to my family! No! I am NOT okay!"

Shadow and Dark were watching them out of the corner of their eyes before Shadow swung his arm and threw the Emeralds across the distance.

Mephiles' screamed in fear.

"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Shadow only grinned and Dark joined in, much to Iblis' surprise when he picked up the bags and realize what was in them.

Oranges... five... oranges.

Not having enough time to voice his rage at this, he glared just as Shadow, Rouge and Dark held up the Emeralds, Dark holding the red and aqua one, Shadow holding the green and yellow, and Rouge holding up the purple.

"_Chaos Control._" They all said collectively, and there was a moment where the world seemed silent before a flash of light and there was a tear in the fabric of time, a portal opening up.

"_If one Emerald lets you warp..._" Dark explained with a grin. "_And two cancel each other out and lets you time _travel..._ While all of them grant ultimate power..._"

"I wonder what five do?" Shadow asked in a mocking way. "Hey, Dark... do you think think it might take us exactly where we want to go? Or jump us back or forward in time?"

"_Maybe... maybe not. But I can tell you anywhere is better than here now._"

"Agreed..."

And, with Rouge dragging a very confused and stunned Mephiles behind, the three of them jumped through before Iblis took off after them. And since the group of four jumped in the same time frame of five seconds, they ended up together, while Iblis, being too late, was spat out elsewhere.

* * *

Shadow appeared first, followed by Rouge with Mephiles and then, for an odd reason, Dark fell out of a tree and landed with a **WHUMP **on the somewhat soft grass.

"_Alright... where the heck are we, and for that matter when?_" Dark picked himself up and pulled bits of dead grass out of his white chest fur.

"Our house." Shadow said. "As for the time... I'll have to check the TV Guide station."

Dark was perhaps the most bewildered anyone had ever seen him.

"_The what what?_"

"It's a channel on TV where they tell you what's on other channels."

"_And just what in the heck is a TV?_"

Anyone would have laughed if Dark didn't look dead serious.

"We'll explain eventually, but for now, we need to get inside and take care of Mephiles..."

"Shadow, I'm f-fine..."

"No, you aren't." Shadow folded his arms. "Who knows what this might have done to you? At the very least, you'll be having a hard time sleeping tonight."

"Mmmmm...." Mephiles shifted his eyes down to stare at the ground.

"As for _you..._" Shadow then turned his attention back to Dark, who flinched, knowing what was going to be said. "This is your fault. If you had just stayed in the hotel, we might not have had this happen."

"_Oh, now, just wait a Chaos Flaming second!_" Dark growled, having used another set of words to tone down his original use of language. "_In my defense, I only left because _you _kept staring at me like you expected that I was going to do something bad! I merely left so that that would stop!_"

"Oh, don't you try to pin this one on me, you faker!"

"_Hedgehog!_" Dark retaliated and before long, both of them were throwing insults back and forth with out pause.

"Monster!"

"_Half Breed!_"

"Thing!"

"_Hybrid!_"

"Demon!"

"_Alien spawn!_" Dark spat out after hearing the last one.

And with that, Shadow growled and jumped at him, knocking them both to the ground as he grabbed a handful of Dark's quills, Dark howling in pain before swiping his claws across his face.

"Stop it, you two!" Rouge shouted, stepping forward to try and break it up.

"_You're not even a hedgehog at all! A tenrec, really... with alien blood!_"

"You're one to speak!" Shadow snapped a few quills off, much to Dark's anger at that. "You're just a mass of pure element, and you don't even have a family tree at all!"

"_At least I was _born_ on this planet, you space age piece of-!_"

"Stop it! Stop it! Both of you! _Just stop!_" Mephiles howled, getting everyones' attention. Mephiles worked his fingers onto his quills and lowered himself to the ground, hunching over as he crouched down. His voice was shaking now. "... Y-you said you'd be good... you p-promised that you'd try... please don't f-fight... _please..._"

Now he was trembling.

Sighing to themselves, Shadow let go of Dark's quills, tossing the snapped ones aside as Dark shoved him off with more force than what was needed.

Shadow was with Rouge by Mephiles' side trying to calm him down now, as Dark watched from several feet away almost curiously.

"I'm not fighting anyone..." Shadow tried reassuring. "Okay? We just had a bit of a... disagreement..."

"No, you didn't! You were yelling and pulling his quills!" Mephiles curled up into a ball.

"He's probably just overreacting right now because of what just happened..." Rouge said to Shadow, low enough for Mephiles not to catch. "He said that Iblis made him... well... see what he did to his... his..."

"I see..." Shadow nodded, not needing to hear all of it to know what this was all about. He gave Mephiles a pat on the back. "C'mon, let's just go inside and you can lie down if you need to..."

Mephiles nodded slowly, and wiped his nose, looking up at him with a small smile.

Dark, however, gasped to himself in surprise.

Unless he was imagining things... Mephiles' eyes just darkened the moment theirs both met.

Dark blinked and they were back to normal. He shook his head quickly, and pressed his fingers to his forehead to relieve any pressure that might have built up during that scuffle with Shadow. Maybe it was just an adrenaline rush that went to his head.

"Coming, Dark?" Mephiles said.

Dark looked at him again, and this time, he could swear that he saw Mephiles smirk at him.

_Something isn't right here... _Dark said to himself while forcing himself to nod.

"_Y-yeah... of course... Sorry..._"

* * *

Having been given a quite tour of everything by Mephiles, whom Dark was watching very closely, Mephiles was now explaining the internet after getting stuck on a a question as to whether or not the food in the pantry could be prepared to accommodate Dark's eating style.

"Now, see, this is a search engine, and by putting in what you're looking for, you can get answers, or even irrelevant junk." Mephiles explained. "Oh, this is an odd one. If you Google in '241543903' and search images... you get a bunch of people with their heads stuck in a freezer."

"_Bizarre..._" Dark said slowly, more interested in what he was looking for than at. He carefully waved a hand over Mephiles' head and drew it back quickly before anyone could see anything.

_No... please tell me that I'm just paranoid..._

* * *

Later that night, Dark was wandering about, unable to battle his restlessness.

_There is no way they'll believe me right now... so I guess I'm on my own on this..._ He told himself as he settled himself down in a chair by the table and put his head down.

An ear flickered and he looked up quickly to see Mephiles leaning against the doorframe, arms folded and smirking as he held a quill in his fingers.

"_I dunno who you think you're fooling..._" Dark growled, scooting the chair aside with his foot as he got to his feet. "_But I know you aren't Mephiles. What have you done to him, Iblis?_"

"_Bravo, little brother... you caught on much faster than the rest of these idiots._" Iblis' voice sounded from Mephiles' mouth. "_But I take points away from you for stupidity. Mephiles is still here._" He pointed to his forehead with a teeth bared grin. "_He's been here a few times today, but he doesn't even realize I'm here right now..._"

"_Leave him alone... or I'll-_"

"_Or you'll what, Little Brother?_" Iblis laughed softly, keeping his voice as low as Dark's. "_You can't hurt me without hurting him, and that hedgehog and bat will think you're just insane if you try to tell them. Shadow hardly even trusts you._"

"_What do you want now?_"

"_Me? Oh, not much right now... just a little bit of fun, since you spoiled it earlier and sent me elsewhere._" Iblis' eyes widened a bit in amusement. "_I'm not really here, and I'm simply doing this remotely. You shouldn't have left him with me for so long, Dark... I put a bit of a... curse... on him, for lack of a better term. When I invaded his brain to force him to see what I did to-_"

Dark caught him by the throat will only enough force to get him to shut up, but not injure Mephiles.

"_What do you want from me?_"

"_Oh, Dark... it's simple._" Iblis whispered. "_Quite. I want you to play along, as if you know nothing about this..._"

"_If you think I'm going to keep my mouth shut-_"

"_What's the point... they won't believe you..._" Iblis smirked again and with the quill he had in his hand, he swept it across Mephiles' arm to leave a bleeding gash. "_All they'll see is that this is one of your quills you dropped earlier, and Mephiles has a slash in his arm..._" And then he changed his voice, using Mephiles' instead as Dark let go and jumped back. "Shadow! Rouge!"

"_Oh, you son of a_-"

"_Son of a what, exactly?_" Iblis changed his voice back just to spite him. "_We have no mother, and I highly doubt she'd be of the canine persuasion if she _did _exist..._"

With that being said, he dropped the quill at Dark's feet and slid to the ground, clutching his arm with a whimper in Mephiles' voice.

_Oh... he's good... _Dark frowned.

"What happened?" Shadow was the first one in. He looked at Mephiles, the cut on his arm that was dripping blood on the linoleum tile of the kitchen, the quill on the floor and Dark, who had a visibly snapped quill in his clumps. "You better not have done what I think you just did..." He glared at Dark, who flinched.

"Shadow! Don't get mad at him, it's not his fault!" Iblis made Mephiles say. "I don't even think he knows what just happened."

"But you're bleeding!"

"I think he was sleep walking or something, and was really out of it." Mephiles' voice chattered anxiously. "He was so confused and all, and well... I dunno what happened in his head, but he called me Iblis and took a whack at me."

Dark glared. Iblis was such an actor.

"Let's just get that cut taken care of before it gets an infection..." Rouge said, staring at Dark for a moment. Unless Dark was mistaken, He could swear that Rouge actually believed to some degree him over Mephiles.

"Don't hurt him, or anything, Shadow!" "Mephiles" whispered. "I don't blame him for mistaking me for his brother, since we all kinda look the same, especially if one of us isn't seeing too well... I bet he was just scared!"

Dark rolled his eyes. What a faker!

Shadow glared at Dark, who folded his ears back and decided to play along and gave a confused look, taking a glance at Mephiles arm, then at the quill at his feet before jumping back and looking startled.

It must have worked, because no questions were asked.

* * *

Alright... might that please all of us who wanted Iblis back? I've had that idea in mind for ages, and now was the perfect time. ^^

Poor Dark... Iblis is going to screw with his brain until he get him out of Mephiles. And with Shadow as he is... this is going to be harder than making pie crust from scratch. And believe me... that's hard to get it perfect!


	29. Not Just Another Day

Yeah, so... here's a new chapter. ^^

Enjoy...

* * *

The next morning, Dark was found sitting at the table, eyes closed and head propped up with his hand while he looked like he might have fallen asleep there, and from the dark lines under his eyes, it can be gathered that he fell asleep within the hour.

When Shadow set the newspaper down (or to be more accurate, he flat out dropped it on the table, and this being a Sunday edition, it was rather heavy and made a sound.), Dark snorted and jumped, resulting in him toppling out of the chair and hitting the ground before he knew what happened exactly. He blinked and glared at the hybrid hedgehog, who just stared.

"_Oh... it's just you..._" Dark picked himself up off the ground and saw to it that he was dusting himself off casually, as if he didn't really care who it was that just startled him. "_You're up early..._"

"My house, not yours. Any reason why you fell asleep here, and not over there?" Shadow pointed to the living room, where an untouched set up of blankets and a pillow had been set in front of the couch, which Mephiles was sleeping on at the moment.

Dark stared at Mephiles for a while, as if trying to figure something out, and simple said: "_You wouldn't believe me if I told you..._"

"Fine, be that way." Shadow scoffed and pulled the Currents section out of the newspaper to read as he waited for his bread to finish toasting in the toaster. "It looks like we got jumped forward about a few weeks... so that drops us near the end of the month..."

"_It's only been that long?_" Dark raised an eyebrow and sat back in the chair he fell out of. "_I thought it had been at least a full month or two... but then again, Mephy's mind has no set time constraint, and how often he fell asleep also might have thrown me off..._"

Shadow folded the section up without a word and grabbed the local section, while Dark decided to see what the deal was with the current section, and why it was a bit more colorful than the rest. Of course, this was the Sunday paper, so that meant the Dark eventually discovered the comics, and one particular one was taking up a quarter of the front page. It was a bit minimal in words, but the visuals seemed enough to tell the little story there. A kid gets out of bed, only to be tackled by a tiger easily three times his size, to whom the kid shouts a few insults to, but only receives a playful toss in the air, and the tiger shouts how they can now "do stuff again" because it was morning. The kid simply says, presumably to the reader, that it's hard to be mad at someone who misses you while you're asleep.

He blinked and looked a something about a cat that like lasagna.

Again. He blinked.

"_I don't get it..._" He pushed it away. "_Why would a kid live with a tiger, and how come that cat speaks in clouds?_"

"Try looking at it more simply. It's not meant to make think, it supposed to get a laugh."

Dark narrowed his eyes and tried again.

"_Nope. Still the same..._" Dark shoved the newspaper farther away and put his head back down on the table.

"What? Didn't sleep last night?" Shadow looked at him out of the corner of his eye as he got up to get his toast.

"_Would you believe me if I said that something wrong was going on right now and I have nothing to do with it?_" Dark lifted his head up and said hopefully. "_No? That's what I thought..._"

"I'm actually more interested in why Meph's arm was cut with your quill, and you don't seem to know what happened..." Shadow said in a way that seemed more calm than the vibe he was giving off. "Moreover... why did he not seem the least bit scared, if he's been known to panic about everything..."

_Well, he's starting to get one piece of the puzzle... he's just not going to use it to solve it, it seems. _Dark growled to himself.

"_Perhaps a mystery that has yet to unfold?_" Dark said, shrugging slightly. "_As his best friend, I'm sure that you would be able to tell if anything was amiss with him..._"

"I don't like the way you speak so..."

"_Cryptically? As if I'm trying to communicate something that is otherwise being stopped from me saying it quite clearly?_" Dark said with a bat of the eyes.

"Just what are you up to?" Shadow narrowed his eyes at him.

"_No, I think the question is what am I _not _up to, and what is Iblis up to now that he's ticked that he's been tricked?_" Dark pressed a palm to his forehead. "_Think about it. Just what am I going to do to you if you let me into your house, eat your food, and spend an entire night, presumably awake? Notice that you actually got up this morning? If I was up to something, and if I was still evil... I would have killed you before now. And yet, here I am, in your house, talking to you and saying all of this, because I have no desire to cause any harm to anyone..._"

"And what about Mephiles' arm?"

"_Well, I know I didn't do that._"

"There was only you and him in here last night."

"_Well, if I didn't and he didn't... and neither did you or the bat... who else does that leave?_"

"No one..."

"_Points for getting an answer..._" Dark got up and left for another room. "_But minus that many for doing the wrong problem..._"

"Where are _you_ going?"

Dark stopped at the door and looked over his shoulder with a slightly annoyed look.

"_I plan to find someplace where I can sleep without being disturbed... Preferably under a rock right now, since that seems a bit more inviting than the situation I'm currently in... Surprisingly, no offense aimed at you..._"

As it turned out, as what would be discovered by Rouge several hours later, that the place he ended up picking was at the bottom of a coat closet, curled up on several fallen ones, and was currently shielding his eyes from the light difference to the bat's bewilderment.

"I'm probably better off not asking..."

"_... That light is hurting my eyes..._"

"That... would be called the Sun..."

"_... I don't think I like it..._"

"Well, you can't spend all day in there..."

"_... Watch me..._" Dark rolled over to face to wall side, only to get pulled out by Mephiles, or by who he hoped dearly was said hedgehog.

"Aw, c'mon! You won't get on anyone's good side if you hide in there!"

"_... You won't get on my good side if you keep touching me..._" Dark glared and pulled his arm away quickly.

"Sheesh... Not really a morning person, are you?" Mephiles rolled his eyes.

"_I just didn't get enough sleep last night..._"

"Why not?" Mephiles tilted his head. "None of us were up late last night, so that should have been enough time... Oh, hey..." He looked at his arm and saw a piece of gauze taped to it. "When did that happen? Weird... I don't remember getting hurt..."

Not only did that confirm Dark's suspicions as to whether or not that was Mephiles right now, but seemed to cause a raised eyebrow with Rouge, and both reactions did not seem to get caught by Mephiles at all, who was confused as to how he got injured.

"Don't you remember last night?"

"Uh... just that we got home and I showed Dark a few things, caught a couple shows on TV, and I guess I fell asleep. Did I claw myself or something?"

"..."

Instead of letting himself get worried by that, Mephiles shrugged and asked the date, and having learned that it was three weeks back, he smiled.

"Hey, that means that there's that House marathon still on TV today, so I can still catch it!" He said excitedly. "Y'know, Dark, that might be something that would interest you. This guy is smart, and also a bit of a jerk, even though he actually cares about his friends."

"_Eh?_"

"Well, he's a jerk most of the time because he... well, you have to check it out for yourself... if I remember right, it's a best of season five this weekend. That was one of the best and really recent seasons, so it's really a good catcher there..."

"_Uh... huh..._" Obviously, Dark was a bit skeptical, and was slightly annoyed that he had assumed that a smart jerk would automatically mean Dark would find an interest in whatever that show was about. Nonetheless, just to humor all of them, he gave it a try anyway.

* * *

"_So let me get this straight..._" He said after a few episodes. "_The episode usually starts of pretty normal, and focuses on a particular person for no reason, often switching to a background character in the beginning and after some time, everything warps out a bit and someone loses consciousness or has a seizure or starts coughing up blood..._" Dark tried to piece the set up of an episode together. "_The person goes to this particular hospital because no one else can figure out what's wrong. This guy, House, is usually wrong between each commercial break, and often nearly kills the patient because of a mistake he overlooked._" Dark took a deep breath. "_Anyway, apparently, it's never Lupus, and he likes to eat the food of a guy in a coma. Secondly, it's quite obvious that his boss and him both like each other, so why are they-_

"

"It's part of the drama of the show."

"_Why?_"

"People are more interested in the characters than the actual medical accuracy of the show."

"_Why?_"

"Just watch it."

Dark was actually more intent on paying close attention to Mephiles to determine if and when Iblis would switch on them. But as far as he could tell, as of the moment was that nothing seemed to suggest so, since there wasn't a clash with Dark's Aura, which he noted to himself that it seemed that Iblis' caused his to... well, he had no word for it, but it felt like his was being pulled forcibly in any and all direction, which in turn wore him out.

But, it seemed not the case as of the moment, so he figured to take that as a time to not worry, so that he didn't cause himself to be exhausted, as seemed the case this morning.

_Should I try to tell him, or would Iblis do something? Or worse, how would he react? Mephy is too fragile mentally to have such a stress put on it, and the last thing I need right now is him falling apart because of something I told him... Shadow would be sure to blame me somehow, even though I'm trying to help... _Dark thought to himself. _So I'm screwed if I do nothing, because Iblis will grow bored of this eventually, and I'm screwed if I do something because then I risk Mephy getting hurt, which falls back on me one way or another... either way, I suffer. Great... that's exactly how he wants it. He's either trying to make me look insane, or actually break me enough that I actually go insane again..._

Of course, this was all said to himself in rapid thought, since Dark didn't need much time to think to himself, having the advantage of a fast thinking brain.

"_Well, I'm taking a break from this. I'll be back..._" He said quickly and got up to leave before Mephiles could ask why. "_I said I'd be right back..._"

"But it's just getting to the good part!" Mephiles protested and grabbed his arm, which Dark froze and tensed up to, having felt such a shove to his Aura, he wondered briefly if it had been knocked out of him.

Of course, Mephiles didn't have the slightest clue what was going on, and was very surprised when Dark shuddered and reached his hand back to try to pull the other one free, and found it even more surprising was how much effort was _not _being put into doing so.

Sensing that it had to do with the skin contact, Mephiles let go and watched Dark stumbled a few steps before he could catch himself by bracing a hand to the side of the couch. Dark was shaking slightly, and took a deep breath to force himself to stop.

"What was that all about?" Mephiles said in concern. "You alright?"

Dark held a hand to his head, realizing that a migraine was going to make itself known as a dull pain was forming on the right side of his head.

_I don't get it... I thought now that I figured out that my memory suppressing was accounting for most of the migraines they wouldn't be so bad and frequent... then why is this one starting now? Unless... Iblis' Aura doesn't agree with mine... and he did that to me on purpose just to see what I would do. I bet he thinks if I'm in pain, I won't think right..._

"_... I think I'm getting a headache now..._" Dark said slowly, realizing that he nearly left Mephiles' question unanswered.

"Oh, well, I know what can help."

"_Don't use your power right now._" Dark said quickly, waving a hand as if to gesture the thought of it away.

"Why not?" Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "We both know that it will work."

"_You already used it yesterday, and it doesn't seem right having you do it every time my head gets sore..._" Dark said, trying to avoid any contact at all. "_That, and every time you do that, you feel it too. I don't understand why you would purposely hurt yourself like that, anyway..._"

"If it helps, I'll do it..."

"_Thanks, but no thanks..._" Dark declined. "_I would rather this time wait on it. It doesn't seem as bad and perhaps it may be over before the hour is._"

"Well, at least stay for the show then." Mephiles' eyes shifted back to the TV once the commercials were over. "This was the third commercial break, so that means he's going to have them do a test on the person-"

"_Only to stop it before it progresses too far, because it's not what they thought it was?_"

"That's a pretty good guess."

"_Because that's a recurring theme._" Dark rolled his eyes. "_Just let me know if someone actually dies or not in this one. I'll be back before the end of the next one._"

Before another word was said, Dark disappeared down the hall, intending on finding the most secluded area to be out of sight and have a moment to think.

That was, he intended to do so... before a certain bat grabbed him by the arm, pulled him into her room, shoved him against a wall and shut the door with a foot.

Dark blinked, taking a moment to let his brain figure out what had just happened before looking from side to side with a confused look.

"_Uh... you do know who I am, right?_" He said, wondering if she had meant to grab another spiky quilled, fluffy chested hedgehog.

"Yeah, of course, Dark." Rouge rolled her eyes. "Keep your voice down... I don't want to be overheard..."

"_Alright... so why pin me to the wall, in your room, with the door... closed?_"

"So no one can hear us, so that I can ask you a few things."

"_I have to admit, this is kind of awkward, if not a bit unnerving..._" Dark pushed her away a bit to establish that personal space bubble. "_I mean, what would your boyfriend think if he walked in right now?_"

"Shadow is not my boyfriend!" Rouge still managed to keep her voice low, but it was obvious that she would have shouted, judging from the tone of voice as she blushed a bit. "He's just a very good friend who-"

"_Lives in your house, sleeps in your room-_"

"On the floor!"

"_You're hardly seen without any sign if him, not to mention the devotion the both of you have to __each other, and your are practically raising Mephy as a couple..._" Dark allowed a small smirk at this. "_If that doesn't shout relationship, then I must have read wrong._"

"Oh, would you just shut up? I brought you in her to ask you some questions about last night."

"_That again?_" Dark rolled his eyes (wow, there seems to be a lot of that today.), and folded his arms to stare at her."_Look, I can tell you that I didn't use that quill on him._"

"I gathered that much."

"_Wait, you believe me?_" Dark was a bit caught off guard. "_Wow, that was easier than I thought. I mean, I had this odd feeling last night that Shadow was going to stand over me with a pillow or something while I was asleep... You on the other hand seemed like you sense something was going on..._"

"Yeah. There was something weird about the way Mephiles reacted to bleeding like that." The bat explained with a nod. "I'm sure it can be up to debate as to who between Shadow and I know Mephiles better, but I do know that I've helped him more times with tending to injuries."

"_And..._"

"I know that he would not have been that calm if he knew that he was bleeding like that." Rouge twitched her ears a bit, as if trying to hear for something, but all seemed well. "He can't stand the sight of blood in any amounts, and he would not have been so collected if you really had used that quill on him."

"_Very observant. But Shadow seems to have been completely fooled._"

"Because I think he's too strung on trying to bust you for something."

"_He's going to have to work hard then, because I have no intention on doing something wrong._"

"Anyway..." Rouge steered the conversation back. "Where is Mephiles really?"

Dark sighed and rubbed a hand on his forehead in thought, trying to ward away the dull ache.

"_This is complicated._" He started. "_But, Mephiles is still here. He hasn't left. Iblis on the other hand, is remotely using him, mostly to get to me somehow. Mephy doesn't know at all. Last night, Iblis revealed that to me, and was the one to cut Mephy's arm with my quill that Shadow broke off earlier. He told me that he wants me to play along, as if I don't know anything about it, because if I don't, I'm sure he'll do worse to Mephiles than just cut his arm with a quill..._" He looked up. "_I've been trying to figure out the underlying motive here, and my best guess is that he wants me to look insane to Shadow, furthering the hostility until he snaps and from the look of what I can See, one possibility of the outcome is that I'm taken to an asylum or some such place with maximum security, and that will have me out of the way for Iblis to make his next move. That is, if I follow along too long, and not find a way to reveal this to both Mephy and Shadow without causing any harm at all. As far as I See... that option is still foggy, since I haven't a clue how to get it like that..._"

"You See? Like what Mephiles does?"

"_To a degree, and on a different time spectrum entirely..._" Dark heaved a sigh. "_I only See options and outcomes, and what may happen based on what I do. Of course, this won't take into account variables and unpredictables, so for all I know, it could all easily blow up in my face..._"

"Well, that's still a pretty handy ability..." Rouge said, a little impressed. "How often do you use it?"

"_Not much, to be honest... I See a lot of things, but I only chose to follow a small percentage of options..._"

"Why is that?"

"_Simple..._" Dark closed his eyes and cringed a little. "_No one is meant to know what will happen in any situation. Me having this skill alone breaks so_ _many rules just for being there._" He opened his eyes and added bitterly. "_Some things are best not knowing, and what good does it do if I can only see what _could _have happened?_"

Taking a breath, he turn to leave before he felt a pulse of energy in the air, the kind that didn't agree with his. He froze as his fur stood on end, giving the illusion that he looked fluffier. He had just felt a chill slip down his spine, making each and every one of his muscles quiver from the unpleasant sensation.

_He did that on purpose... _Dark growled to himself, ignoring the bat now and pulling the door open to hurry out and get to a place where he wasn't going to be bothered. _What is he planning? He's going to drive me mad again if I can't keep myself away from him... but with him using Mephy, who's bound to follow me anyway, that's going to be near impossible. I can't ignore it either... and I have no way to fight it without hurting Mephy, and he won't even know what's going on..._

He paused and realize that there was another door at the end of the somewhat short hallway, wondering why it was there, having already known that the house had only one bedroom, and the other necessary rooms to make a house were already there. Glancing over his shoulder quickly to see if he was being watched, his curiosity got the better of him and he couldn't resist taking a look to see what was on the other side.

It was dimly lit, with light seeping out of a large door on a wall adjacent to where he entered. The room was practically bare bones in interior, with boxes of all sizes stacked against the walls, various appliances and objects that seemed to not have been used for a while were there, as was two large and equally sized cubical shaped machines, one being linked to a large container with hoses, and the other one leading to a vent.

Now of course, being who he was and also lacking any need for clothes due to being a Mobian hedgehog shaped creature, and male, meaning that if not for the crystal layers on his hands and feet, he was not in need of gloves or socks and shoes, so Dark never heard of or had the faintest idea what a washing machine or a dryer was. And since Mobian sized home furnishings were difficult to come by in Westopolis, despite the large number of Mobian occupants, these appliances were just a couple inches shorter than him, making the height of them at least three feet on the dot, Dark being three feet, three inches tall, the same as Mephiles and Shadow.

Running his eyes over them, however, he quickly concluded what they were and their purpose, based on the item near them, most of which were mainly Rouge's, having been nearly the only one to use much of the fabric items that were not gloves, towels, bedding and the like.

Realizing the air was a bit hot there, no doubt for the water heater nearby, Dark left that area and went to the colder area that simply had a rug, which he sat on.

_Don't really care much for heat... just not my element... _He told himself, glad to see that he might have found a secluded area for a little while to think.

"You know the next episode is starting, right?"

Dark jumped, having not heard Mephiles come in.

"Kinda high strung today, huh?" The hedgehog tried not to laugh when Dark fell over from the shock of being jolted out of his thoughts so sharply.

He blinked and narrowed his eyes at Mephiles.

"_Next time... warn me before you find me or something..._" He growled. "_... Otherwise, you just might give me a heart attack someday..._"

"I've had one at least before. It's something you hope won't happen..." Mephiles said, looking around as if taking a sudden interest in all the boxes.

"_I know... I felt it when you had it... remember?_" Dark said with a hint of annoyance, picking himself off the ground. "_We both had our hearts stop..._"

"Really? So that's why you lost..." Mephiles said without meaning for it to sound as blunt as it did to Dark, who flinched and growled deeply. Mephiles heard that and jumped back nervously, realizing just what it sounded like to Dark. "Whoa, calm down!" He had his hands up, palms out. "I didn't mean it like I was making fun of you or something. I meant that I didn't know what happened to you after that fight. Shadow and Rouge only told me what happened to me, which was bad enough as it was, since I was really badly hurt..."

"_It would be nice if for one day..._" Dark glared, folding his arms. "_... Just one... that I could go through it without at least one reminder of my failures. Just one..._"

"Why not focus on what you haven't failed at?" Mephiles asked shyly, not certain if Dark was serious or just relapsing a bit because of what he said.

"_If you can think of one let me know... because I'm coming up a bit dry..._"

Mephiles was silent. Dark raised a pretty good point. The only thing he seemed to be really good at was really being himself... and even at that, he just learned that he was wrong about that too...

Ouch...

"Y'know what would be a neat idea?" Mephiles said quickly, clapping his hands together once to bring back a more positive mood. "Since we're back at the house, and it's not too early in the day, we should see about checking on my Chaos. I have three of them, and I think one of them is halfway yours, since he has more your traits than mine..."

"_The plural of Chao is Chao, by the way..._"

"Eh?"

"_It's like sheep, moose, and deer. The plural and singular are the same..._"

"But everyone around here call them Chaos..."

"_Then everyone is wrong..._"

"Do you wanna see them or not?" Mephiles rolled his eyes. "Either way, I want to check on them. Krystal is very sensitive, so I'm sure she can't wait to see me too."

"_You named a Chao after the stuff on your quills?_"

"_I _didn't. I was unconscious at the time."

"_What are the other ones?_"

"Her brother, Sharpe, and Kai, who I picked up shortly before this whole thing started up..." Mephiles tapped his foot a bit. "But I'm serious... Shadow said we jumped three weeks ahead, and that's the longest they've been without me..."

"_Is it still too bright out there?_"

"It's afternoon."

"_I really don't care much for light... makes my eyes burn..._" Dark shook his head.

"Y'know... there's no harm in going outside."

"_Other than retinal damage..._"

"Oh, don't be such a baby." Mephiles turned around and headed for the door. "With or without you, I'm still going."

Dark was a bit stuck there. On one hand, he could stay there and not have to deal with adjusting to the sun outside, and on the other hand, he could go and avoid the possibility of a confrontation arising if he were to encounter Shadow...

"_But...it hurts my eyes... I like the ability to see..._" He argued feebly.

"Hold on." Mephiles disappeared out of the room for a moment and came back with a pair of dark lensed glasses and held them out. "Try these. They're sunglasses, and they're supposed to protect your eyes from the sun."

"_Is it really that easy?_" Dark raised an eyebrow as he examined them then tried them, only to take them back off. "_They're too dark..._"

"Because we're still inside. Seriously... genius IQ, and you don't even know how to put on-"

"_Okay! I get it! Geeze!_"

Later led to the two outside, unknowingly with a certain hedgehog watching carefully from afar.

Anyway, Dark had his back pressed to a tree to keep light contact to a minimum and was watching the reunion between a hedgehog and his Chaos... er... I mean Chao. Yeah, thanks Dark, for clearing that up. Oh, and a purple fox and her senile dog were there too.

"Rae? Did you get glasses?"

"Yeah." Rae blinked, as if this wasn't really something that was surprising. "What do you think? I had to look through a lot of frames to find a pair that really said..." She paused and took them off to hold them out to look at them. "Well, actually, they're inanimate, so if they _did _speak, I'm either losing my mind again, or the future just came early..." She put them back on. "Do you know how hard it is to keep Sharpe from trying to claw a scratch into the lenses? And these are a custom prescription... so that's not something I can replace easily..."

"I actually had no idea that you needed them."

"Yeah, funny story about that." Rae grinned and laughed. "Apparently my left eye is nearsighted because it's lazy eye... or whatever you call an offset one. Watch..." She focused her eyes on something stationary and straight ahead. "I heard that if you look closely, that the left one turns in a little, like it's a tiny bit off center." She blinked and looked back at him. "But not visibly by much. Usually only doctors can see it... So anyway, it's been doing that since I was little, and over time it's obscured my vision enough that I'm nearsighted in one eye. In fact, the right lense on the glasses is not concave or convex at all, since it's twenty twenty. But..." Rae said suddenly. "I like them because they look nice, and I've waited for a reason to have glasses since I was four. It's a functional accessory."

"Hmm..." Mephiles said slowly. "Well... have you noticed Dark over there?" He added.

"Huh-wha? Dark? As in the jerk who tried to kill my dog last time?" She widened her eyes and looked over at said jer- I mean, hedgehog... shaped... shadow thing. Gee... he needs a set species. "Isn't he your evil twin or something? Bent on destroying you, and something something... there can only be one?"

"Eh... yeah..."

"What's he doing here?" Rae tried to whisper, but seemed to fail at doing it right, since she tried lowering her voice, and still achieved clear volume. "I thought he died or something... melted, right?"

"Funny story right there, too." Mephiles then went on to explaining what happened, and all to the fox.

"So... he's not actually bad... and he broke his brain, so he wouldn't remember certain things, but goofed and somehow thought he needed to kill you..." Rae tried piecing together. "But now... he's good... and part of your family?"

"Well, not officially, since he won't accept the offer until Iblis is gone, since Iblis wants to kill me even more now..." Mephiles had his arms around Krystal, who was flailing her arms and legs a bit with a whine, as if she wasn't enjoying being held by her favorite person at all. "Huh? That's odd... Krystal, it's me, Mephy."

The Chao tried to push away from him, crying out in distress, as if she was scared or something to the effect of it.

"That's weird..." Rae said slowly, Jak sniffing around at Mephiles' feet, then tilting his head questioningly. "She didn't do that when you were gone. Huh?" She and Mephiles both realized that Kai and Sharpe were staring at their owner with puzzled looks, as if they didn't believe he was who they were told he was. "Whoa... maybe you've been away from them too long?"

"May-_OUCH!_" Mephiles cried out in pain suddenly and let go of his Chao, who scampered behind her brother, Mephiles having been bitten on the arm by her from under the eggshell hat. "Wha-what did... but..." He stuttered in shock, tearing up a little, not so much from being bitten, but by who. "K-kyrstal... bit me. Sh-she's _never_ bitten me b-before..." He held his hand to the bite, wincing in pain a little from a sting. He watched in confusion, as well as everyone else present, as Krystal started bawling and throwing a Chao tantrum. "Wh-what's wrong with her?"

"I dunno. I've never seen her do that." Rae stepped away a bit, hating how awkward she was around upset people. She was always afraid she'd say the wrong thing or something, so she hoped she wasn't going to be asked much.

"Oh, no... what if she's sick?" Mephiles said, more worried about his Chao than the bite she gave him, now. "I've heard about Chao acting odd if they get sick. It's about the only way they can tell us since it's hard to find one who can talk... I should take her home right now and see if Shadow and Rouge know what to do..."

He reached down to pick her up, only for her to cry louder and claw at him frantically. And since one of her acquired physical traits from him was tiny crystal claws, that left a few marks on him.

"I can't calm her down!" Mephiles was bewildered. "She's never done this before, much less actually attack me!"

"_May I try something?_" Dark offered, knowing full well why the Chao was upset, and of course, Dark could not explain to him why.

"I don't think you'll fare any better than me right now..." Mephiles said grimly. "She doesn't even know you... so I don't think she'll be happy being handled by a stranger..."

"_Can't be any worse than she is now, right?_"

"Hrrrrmmmm..." Mephiles groaned and tried anyway. "Might as well... be careful, like I said, she's very sensitive..."

"_If Chao absorb the traits of their owners, then she's just like you, right?_"

"What are you saying?" Mephiles raised an eyebrow.

"_Eh... if you trust me now, she's bound to follow your example..._" Dark reasoned over the Chao's wails. Truth was, that wasn't going to work as fast, and that Krystal was having a fit because she was sensing Iblis' Aura in Mephiles, being a Chao and all... well... they have a connection to Chaos Energy, simply put. Sharpe and Kai were just confused, and poor Krystal felt the energy first up, and sadly, Dark suspected that the poor little Chao was an emotional wreck to begin with. "_She could just be confused and upset as you leaving her for as long as you did, and with her seeing the both of us, perhaps that's causing her to have a meltdown because she thinks she sees two of you...._" Dark was really making up a theory as he went along, but hoped there was logic to it. He reached over to pick her up, and Mephiles was astounded that she quieted down considerably.

Other than being grateful, however, he frowned and said levelly: "She's still my Chao..."

"_I'm not taking her... I'm just helping..._" Dark's ears shifted up a bit as if he was surprised by that response. "_I really have no interest in a Chao of my own._"

"But didn't Mephy say that Sharpe is, like... partly yours since he has some of your traits?" Rae said, having been silent since the Chao's tantrum intensified.

"Not helping, Rae."

"Sorry..."

Sharpe was looking up at Dark and Krystal before exchanging a look with Kai and Jak, all of whom were thinking the same thing the fox and the hedgehog hadn't given a thought about.

Through a bit of body language common among the Chao, with a few coos and whatnot that Chao annunciate, which translated roughly to what Jak could pick up on, if we were to translate it, it might be along the lines of this:

_I don't get it... it's Dad, but it's not Dad... _Sharpe told Kai. _He's supposed to be giving off calm vibes, but there's something else there... _

_What about that guy there? _Kai looked in Dark's direction. _He looks kinda like Mephy, but he's got too much Chaos coming from him, like he makes more than he can hold. _

_I think that's that Dark person. Dad had some trouble with him before you were picked up... _Sharpe explained. _Krystal and I never saw him til now, but we've heard all sorts of things about him..._

_Is he nice?_

_Well, that's the problem there... I remember hearing that he was pretty mean, and he made Dad do a bunch of bad things..._

_Well, what's he doing here and holding your sister then!? _Kai's emotion dot above his head turned into an exclamation point.

_I dunno, but he seems a lot different than what I've heard. _Sharpe tilted his head and looked up at Krystal. _Hey, sis! What's he feel like?_

_Wh-who?_

_That guy that's holding you. Is he good or bad? _

_Uh... w-well... he's got too much energy, b-but it's pretty calm right now... _Krystal was glad that her eggshell was hiding everything but her eyes, and so was hiding her scared expression. _But Daddy has something that's hiding in his glowy th-thing... it's not very nice..._

_Well, that's because he's something hiding in his mind... _They all heard Jak add, who circled around Rae's feet unnoticed, sniffing at the ground with his nose nearly pressed to it, trying to pick up a scent then followed it to make his way to both boy Chao. _I can't see it, but it's not the same color, and it's doing a good job at hiding from the Mobian ability to sense them..._

_Since when can you sense Auras? _Sharpe's dot shaped a question mark as he frowned and sidestepped a bit while Jak seated between the two as Mephiles continued to find every reason he could to see why Krystal was being so upset, all the while Dark giving his insight to try and make it as simple as possible, hoping someone would catch one to his messages he was leaving in tone of voice and word choice. Sadly, Dark was way too smart for the rest of the world here, so it easily got overlooked, much to his displeasure. That's why no one knew three Chao and a dog were figuring this mystery out as well.

_Long time. Very helpful too... That's how I knew Rae was trying to help me when she met me... _Jak shifted his head around, trying to see which Chao was talking to him. _The purple Auras are always nice... the red ones are often misunderstood and tend to be angry because of that... _

_What color are you seeing?_

_There's an orange one flickering in there... fire like. _

_What's orange? _

_I honestly don't know... never seen another one like it... _Jak admitted. _But just how fire like it is is making this something to be worried about..._

_Is it Dad's?_

_No... I don't think so... Mephiles has always had purple... That's why I like him so much, because I knew he was good..._

_Just a question, old man. _Sharpe said skeptically. _How come you can see them, but you have trouble seeing for real?_

_I believe you answered that before you asked... _Jak sneezed. _I'm old. It's the only way I can find my way around here, because I know who has what. _

_Well, then what's mine, if I have one? _Kai asked, very curious. _Do Chao have Auras?_

_You _are _an Aura. Well, no. You're a Chao, and that means that you have a direct link to Chaos itself. _

_Wha?_

Before that subject could go any further, the Chao and the dog were all picked up and taken back to their homes, the Mobians having finished the conversation as Mephiles decided that he should just bring the Chao back home. To his annoyance, Sharpe and Kai were preferring to hover next to him instead of every taking their usual perches on him.

* * *

"I've never seen that happen before!" Mephiles told Shadow, following behind him closely around the kitchen as the black hedgehog tried maneuvering around him as he gathered ingredients for the directions on the box of noodles. "I mean, she even bit me! Me! And- Hey, whatcha gonna make?"

"I figured I'd try an idea here, and make something that's going to make everyone happy..." Shadow looked at the box, stared for a moment, shrugged and said: "Do we still have any tomato sauce? I don't feel like making that from scratch..."

"I think it's at the top of the pantry..." Mephiles pointed. "But anyway... I dunno what happened, and what's even weirder is that she calmed down when Dark held her..."

"Say that again?"

"Top pantry?"

"No, the last part."

"When Dark held her?"

"Yeah, that..." Shadow cursed to himself when he saw just how far the top shelf was, again, his short, average Mobian size causing a problem. "Can you find a stool or something? I don't feel like trying to climb the shelves..."

"Like that time at that gift shop?"

"You remember that?" Shadow looked over his shoulder. "But, that was when Dark was still..."

"Oh, he told me about that one. It sounds kinda funny..."

"Nothing funny about being banned from a gift shop for a year..." Shadow sighed. "And like I said, those plushies just caught of fire themselves..."

"I don't even see how that was possible..."

"I was having a bad day... found that stool yet?"

"Got a chair..."

"It'll work..." Shadow got the jar of spaghetti sauce and set it down. "Anyway, I figured that I can just make the noodles, then heat the sauce up, get some meat for it and set it aside, that way we all can add in what we want, and Dark won't have to complain. Oh, and this is milk free..."

"Perfect!"

"So tell me again about earlier with Krystal?"

Dark, who had been listening on the other side of the wall, sighed and decided to wait by taking a better look into this thing they called... TV.

It was easy enough to figure out how to turn it on, and even easier how to use the remote.

Several channel flips and he landed on something that caught his interest.

"Hello, Gotham. Joker's back in town!" It was animated and a rather insane looking and sounding clown guy announced to a crowd as an old guy stared at him in shock.

Dark looked from side to side before cracking a smile and decided to give it a try.

"_This looks interesting..._"

* * *

Yeah, Dark. It is. If you can guess the movie it's from, then good eye ^^

So, the Chao, Jak and Rae made a reappearance, and something goes on.

Of course, I've observed Chao behavior in the games, so try to imagine it like that, with the way Krystal was freaking out.

Heh, The Chao and Jak got "speaking" parts. I was looking for a slight bit of humor there.

Also, might I add that I thought the Rouge and Dark scene was interesting, because that's probably the longest the both of them have spoken to each other, and it all starts with Rouge yanking him out of the hall then slamming him into a wall. Obviously, Dark thought something else was going on for a moment XD


	30. It'll Kill Ya

Well, new chapter time. And this one is a nice long one ^^

* * *

Dark woke up some point in the middle of the night, realizing a startling fact: He couldn't breathe!

Before his brain got too foggy, he had enough sense in him to lift his foot and kick at the source of his predicament, which he saw, when it was removed, that it was Iblis holding a pillow over his face. Iblis had a bit of a disappointed look on his face as Dark pulled himself into a sitting position, coughing and clutching his chest.

"_Aw, I wanted to see if you'd send shadows at me if you thought you were being killed..._" Iblis whispered as he threw the pillow aside. "_Instead, you kick me... that's pretty weak..._"

"_Sh-shut up..._" Dark glared, gasping slightly as he caught his breath. "_Y'know... if you killed me now... they'd know it was you..._"

"_Oh, and just what is that hedgehog and the bat going to do?_" Iblis grinned with his teeth bared as he leaned in Dark's face. "_If you were out of the way, and I have Mephiles within my reach, then what? They won't risk hurting him, which he'll feel anyway..._" He saw Dark starting to clench his fists in anger, and chuckled at that a bit. "_Then again, I could just let you try and hurt me anyway, and let that little Mephy see what you did. The little guy will be so afraid of you, he won't want to hear a word you have to say..._"

"_He's smart... he'll figure out eventually..._" Dark boasted, shoving Iblis away and getting to his feet to establish that he was not submissive.

"_Smart, yes... but there's a question about the poor boy's mental stability..._" Iblis folded his arms and continued to grin before turning it into a smirk.

"_He's not insane..._" Dark raised an eyebrow, wondering where this was going.

"_No, maybe not... but he's _fragile..." Iblis put an emphasis on the last word as his deepened his smirk. "_I know that it won't take much for him to have a nightmare, so I can use that to my advantage..._"

"_You will leave him alone!_" Dark hissed, trying to keep his voice down, not wanting to alert anyone else.

"_Only if you do what I say...Which reminds me..._" Iblis bared his teeth again, bringing one hand out and stretching the fingers to put his claws into an attack position. "_I know that you told that bat about what was going on. That violates part of our agreement... You're going to have to pay for that..._"

"_What are you going to do?_" Dark eyed the hand carefully, and didn't realize that that was a diversion as Ibis struck him with the other hand, digging his claws into Dark's face.

Dark recoiled and clapped a hand to the injury, but managed to do so without making so much as a scream of pain.

The other hand caught him in the side and dug the claws in, tearing at the flesh as the claws were ripped out and caused much more bleeding than Dark had ever experienced before. And pain... much more pain than he knew was possible.

Unable to contain it, and out of fear he might be left to bleed out and die, he screamed as he hit the floor as Iblis drove his fist into the back of his head.

Face down and shaking, Dark struggled to lift his head, finding that he was getting increasingly dizzy as the seconds passed.

"_Oops, might have overdid it..._" He heard Iblis say causally. "_Oh, well..._"

Dark didn't know how long passed before he heard Mephiles' voice, scared and shrill as Dark heard two other familiar voices as he fell in and out of consciousness.

"...What happened!?"

"... Oh, God... it's everywhere... get it off me!"

"... Calm down... have to get someone..."

"... I d-didn't do it! Dark! Dark! Wake up!"

"... Loosing too much blood..."

"... I think I'm g-gonna be sick..."

"... They're on their way..."

"... I'm serious... I th-think I'm going t-to throw up... urmmmm..."

Dark heard something hit the ground, no doubt that Mephiles had fainted from shock.

Before his brain lost the ability to keep him awake, Dark became terribly aware of how uncertain he was of whether or not he could regenerate blood count or not, and moreover...

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* * *

When Dark came to, it was a very slow process. It was a while before he was thinking in words again. His first coherent sentence to himself was, as he opened his eyes a little, only to squeeze them shut was: _Somebody turn that light off..._

The first thing he was aware of was that was as far as any sensation that he was feeling was that he felt quite nauseated. Which surprised him, because he was certain had more to worry about than just that.

Give him about another minute or so, any he'll know exactly where he is.

Elsewhere, Mephiles was being questioned in another room, as Shadow and Rouge watched through a window that only allowed one way viewing.

Naturally, Mephiles very nervous and was absentmindedly scratching the back of his hand, which had no risk of being hurt.

He scanned every corner of the bare room with his eyes, seeing nothing to put him at ease. Aside from the two chairs and a table, nothing was in there to reduce the echoing that would no doubt result.

"I d-don't like this room... I want Shadow and Rouge..." He whimpered. "Is D-dark g-gonna be okay?"

"The wound missed an artery, so with the right care, he should recover..." The cat said casually as she made a note on the clipboard. "Your friends cannot be with you until this is over."

Mephiles eyed the paper anxiously.

"Th-that wasn't me... I c-couldn't have done that..." He stammered. "I'm not c-crazy, nor am I violent!"

"There are records of an evaluation taken months ago which state that you displayed evidence of mild to moderate mental instability. Care to elaborate?"

"How did you find that out?!" Mephiles squeaked, widening his eyes in shock.

"The question?"

"That was instability due to trauma! I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder because of it!"

"Are you medicated for it?"

"N-no... they haven't found a medication that won't make me sick. My body processes things differently than everyone else. Things can act oppositely with me..."

More notes were made.

"Now, two month ago, under the time frame of a week, you were hospitalized three times, one of which was after attempting to drown yourself. The record also states that your friend received treatment for injuries to his arms, which was your claws and teeth."

"Oh, now, you're just looking at the bad stuff!" Mephiles shook his head. "I suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. I don't know what's going on when it's happening."

"Do you blame this on a panic attack as well?"

Mephiles slammed his hands down on the table and leaned forward with a frown.

"I know what's going on here." He said levelly. "You're trying to make it look like I'm crazy enough to have done it."

"The evidence was all over you when he was brought in." The cat shrugged and made another note, Mephiles shifting his eyes over to it quickly before she covered it with a hand.

He glared.

"I see what you're doing there..." He said. "You're taking words out of context. No matter what I say, you're just going to use it to answer your own questions, so that you can present it to how you want to make me seem." He fell back in his chair and folded his arms and looked at his feet. "I didn't do it. I know I didn't. I don't like fighting. And blood makes me sick... I can't stand seeing it, and I can't stand the smell of it. I either throw up or faint..." He reached his hand up to head for a moment to slide his fingers through his quills, and recoiled a bit when he brushed it against a bruise that he had gotten from hitting his head when he fell. "I want my friends..." He said again. "I'd like to get out of here. I think Dark's waking up, and I think he's very disoriented right now..."

"And what leads you to believe that?"

Mephiles was sure he wasn't going to like where this was going, but the sooner he answered the questions, the sooner he could leave.

"Well... I've known him since I was really little..." Mephiles worded it very carefully this time. "He sometimes doesn't get it, but I can kinda feel and sense what he feels and thinks. He has a very hard time figuring it out for himself sometimes, so I kinda translate for him..."

"Is he your brother, then?"

"Not exactly. He didn't answer that yet..." Mephiles folded his ears back slowly. "His real brother wants to kill him because he thinks he's better, and Dark had amnesia for a long time, so he didn't hear that again until his brother found him..."

"You share quite a resemblance to him..."

"We get that a lot... Can we hurry up? He's been left alone for too long, and he's not feeling well..."

"You sure seem to be occupied with him..."

"Because he doesn't trust anyone else. He thinks everything and everyone is out to get him... I don't blame him. The city he was born in doesn't want him, and his own brother is willing to kill him to be the better one. And then his brain-" Mephiles stopped himself quickly, realizing he was starting to ramble a bit from being tired of this as well as physically. He quickly covered it up with another fact that wasn't going to get either of them in trouble. "Well, his brain... it hurts him very often. He gets bad migraines, and he can get pretty mean then, because it hurts...." Mephiles was hoping to get a bit of sympathy for Dark from that.

"How mean?"

"Uh... he startles me sometimes..." Mephiles really didn't like where this was going now. "He's smacked me a few time for trying to help..."

"What do you do when he hits you?"

"Uh... yelp? It hurts... his claws have hit my face a few times. I still try to help though..."

"How do you help?"

"Is this all even relevant?" Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "What could this possible have to do with him being hurt right now?"

"Because you were the one who found him, and you were the one whose hands had his blood on in them." The cat looked up at him over her glasses. "The slashes in his side are the same size as your claws, which have been documented with surgical precession as far as how sharp they are. He has multiple, equal size and distance tears that are clean cut. Between the two of you, who could have done that to him?"

"His brother has the same kind of claws!" Mephiles squeaked.

"Oh, what a wonderful alibi..."

At that moment, The door was opened and both of them spun there heads to it, seeing Shadow, Rouge and Dr. Thizon standing there.

"Alright, that is about enough, Shela." Thizon said. "I can assure you that Mephiles is quite sane, and would not intentionally hurt someone like that..."

"Are you then implying that there is a possibility, Eric?" Shela flicked her bangs out of her eyes and gave a small smirk. "How much money on repairs have gone to this place since he was first admitted here?"

"That is totally irrelevant to this case."

"And how come you're the only one who works with him willingly? What is everyone else afraid of if he's not unstable?"

"He's a kid." Shadow said, glaring. "He hates hospitals. What kid doesn't? He gets terrified if he can't find us... it's not his fault his claws are that sharp or that his Chaos Aura lashes out when he's scared."

Mephiles looked around for a moment to see if he was still being watched and got up and made his way over to Rouge, and hid his face.

"Can we go now?"

Meanwhile, Dark had become quite aware of his surroundings. Needless to say, he wasn't too pleased. But, unlike his look-a-like, he didn't react to such a situation by tearing up the room. It was possible though, that the reason he did not was that he didn't feel up to it.

_Why did he just try to kill me if he knew that it was going to cause a stir..? _Dark wondered to himself as he pulled himself up a little to not be lying down, taking a sharp breath when he felt a twinge of soreness in his right side. Odd... he thought it was going to hurt more than that.

He blinked and realized his vision was a bit blurry after each blink, clearing up briefly after, then continuing that cycle. He also realized that he had a bit of a dry mouth, and that his tongue was sticking to the roof of it.

_Must have been given painkillers... symptoms match the side effects... How did I know that..?_

Instead of concerning himself with that question, he decided to examine himself to assess just how much damage had been done.

The scratches on his face must have been minor, as they were simply bandaged with sterile gauze and tape with adhesive that wasn't going to rip the fur off his face. The thought of a square shaped bald spot right on his cheek came off as a bit embarrassing to him.

Now for the big one. The gouge in his side...

He didn't bother lifting the large gauze there, since he was a bit uneasy as to how bad it was, but from the looks of what had seeped through the gauze, the bleeding must have been controlled, and the proper procedures were put in order.

_Alright... now there's just the problem that I have no medical documents, being that hardly anyone knows I exist..._ He thought dryly. _Why was I brought here anyway? I'm sure it wasn't because Shadow thought it was a good idea... Where is everyone anyway?_

Dark looked around and saw that the room was empty as far as other people went, and the only signs anyone had been there recently was a few items sets in a couple of chairs, which told him that he wasn't going to be left alone for too long.

Perking his ears a little and swiveling them, he tried to catch any familiar sounds, not having much luck from hearing all the hospital machinery.

Not too pleased with this, he decided that he should just start looking himself. He got off the bed and used it as a support as he took a moment to take a breath. Suddenly, he felt a pain start up slowly in his head.

_Oh, great... just what I needed... _

Dark pulled himself back onto the bed, preferring it over the floor, which was a bit too hard for him, and flopped down on his uninjured side with his head at the foot of the bed, curling up the best he could with a hand to his head. The fact that his stomach already felt sick from the pain medication didn't make it any better for him.

_There's no way Iblis could have made this seem like I did this to myself... _He thought slowly. _So if anything, it's going to look like Mephy-_

Dark suddenly jolted on realization as to what one of his outcomes he had seen was. It wasn't he himself he had seen be admitted for insanity... it was Mephiles! Iblis was going to frame him and use him to get Dark out of the way!

Seeing further ahead, Dark Saw that the intent was not to _kill _Dark, which was what he was worried about, but to cause attention to be drawn to him, which, if GUN caught wind of it, Dark was going to be in a serious predicament.

Why? Simple: He could be considered as part of the artifact that was originally intended to be retrieved one year prior. Because the Scepter was shattered, then that meant that Dark was now basically the item that GUN sent Shadow and Rouge to retrieve, which meant that officially, Dark was currently stolen government property.

If GUN wanted to, they could claim him.

But only if they knew who he was, so for that to happen, someone would have to let that slip.

Back to Mephiles. If he was admitted for instability, then he was going to be well out of Iblis' way, as well as perhaps suffering from this lie that was being fabricated in front of them.

"_... I have to say something to try and stop that..._"

Before he could get up, he looked over at the door way and saw a very relieved Mephiles, who at the same time seemed very upset about something Dark was sure he knew about.

"People are thinking that I tried to kill you..." The crystal hedgehog said quietly, looking at the floor as he dropped into a chair as Shadow and Rouge walked in. "... I know I wouldn't even think about it... but..." He curled his fingers into a lightly held fist. "... My claws match up to what left that... what hurt you... Oh, God..." He shuddered, biting his lip. "Th-there was b-blood everywhere... I th-thought you were already g-gone before I fainted... you weren't m-moving..."

"Can you tell us what happened, exactly?" Shadow said. "It's obvious that Mephiles couldn't and wouldn't have done this, and I pretty much doubt that you'd have the nerve to do that to yourself, since that's pretty much impossible for anyone in their right mind... Which I hope that you're in."

Dark wasn't sure if that entire last half of the comment was meant as a compliment or an insult. On one hand, Shadow gave him the benefit of a doubt, but on the other, he figured that Dark might be scared of pain. Well, partly true...

But again, there was a problem here. With Mephiles in the room, Iblis was bound to hear what he said, and Dark risks Mephiles having a nervous breakdown upon hearing the truth. But if he said nothing, Mephiles was going to take the blame for it.

"Dark... please..." Mephiles looked up at him. "I'm going to be put in observation overnight so that the can try to see what's wrong with my... they want to see if there's... I'm going to be monitored like an... an experiment..." Mephiles was having trouble getting the words he wanted. He shook his head slowly and looked away from everyone. "... Dr. Thizon didn't want it to happen, since he knows how I'd hate the idea... but someone with a higher authority already approved of it..."

_They want to see if he's insane... _Dark thought as he pushed himself up to a sitting position, wincing a little and tilting his head to the side. _And no doubt Iblis is going to make it seem like that..._

"Dark... _please_ tell me that I didn't do that... and if you can... who did..?"

Dark didn't say anything yet. What was he to say? Hey, sorry about this, but my brother is using your body to torture me? If he could, he wouldn't anyway, because he knew Mephiles would take it hard. And he couldn't now anyway because Iblis would know.

Seeing how tense the situation was getting, Shadow offered his own words.

"Hey, Meph, we all know you wouldn't have done that..."

"Then why does it seem like my claws caused that..?" Mephiles had his face half hidden in his hands.

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for-"

"A logical explication for Dark bleeding out all over the carpet, nearly dead and lifeless?" Mephiles said with a touch of sarcasm. "Well, go on ahead, Shadow. Tell me why you think this... this... why it..." He bit his tongue in the literal sense, looked away.

Dark was sure Rouge knew exactly what had really happened, and he was hoping she wasn't going to share it. The more who knew, that Iblis finds out to know, the more in danger Dark was going to be in.

"Y'know, I think Dark might-"

Dark's eyes shot wide and he reacted quickly before she could finish.

"NO!" His protest echoed in the room and perhaps down the hallways and at least to the floor above and below them, since they weren't on the first story.

Everyone's eyes were now on him, making him want to just disappear more than he had ever had before. He realized that he might have actually enjoyed being ignored, since he really didn't like being looked at, especially in this damaged state he was in now.

"_... Please stop staring..._"

"You know something, don't you, Dark?" Shadow said slowly, scratching behind his ear. "I mean, obviously, because you saw that first hand..."

"_... I'm not saying yes or no..._"

"Dark, your answer could help me..." Mephiles said, looking at his hands, which he was wringing at now. "Otherwise, they'll just work with what they speculate, and b-by the looks of it, they think I'm unstable and might have attacked you without warning. I d-don't think you would have let that happen if it was me, and I don't th-think you want me to go through that..."

_You have no idea how right you are..._ Dark folded his ears back.

"Th-the only one I can think of that would do this to you would be... well... your b-brother, but I d-don't think he was able to catch up to us when we got through that portal..."

"Anything you know is going to help..." Rouge added, giving him a look that meant she knew anyway. "If we can help it, he's not going to have to go through that observation. Being stuck in a room all night, watched like an experiment, and the setting won't be familiar. He's not going to sleep well. At all. Think about that..."

Dark pressed the palms of his hands against his forehead, trying to indicate that his brain didn't feel like thinking. Because of the painkillers, the migraine was just a dull ache, but it was bothersome since he was feeling it right near the sinus area, which was hurting his eyes, and the lights weren't helping at all.

"_... I know it wasn't Mephiles... but I can't say who did..._" He said, wanting the subject to be dropped as long as Mephiles was in earshot. "_... My brain feels both fuzzy and sore, so if it's not too much, I'd like to fix it with rest..._"

"If you can't remember, then it's not going to help if you just say it wasn't me..." Mephiles said. "They want proof of who did it, not just how I couldn't have..."

"_... I'm sorry... I wish I could help... but..._" Dark trailed off and didn't finish.

Mephiles stared at him with a hurt look.

"So that's it? You're not even gonna _try?_ You're just going to leave it at that? You'd rather just sleep it off than try and stop me from being some... some lab project?"

"_... It's more complicated than that... I wish I-_"

"Wishing won't fix it! All you have to do is tell then what happened and everything will get better from there!" Mephiles shouted, no longer sitting in the chair and now having all eyes on both him and Dark, who simply looked away, not wanting to make eye contact. "That's it? Fine!" Mephiles spun around and pulled the door open.

"Where are you going?" Shadow said, getting reader to have to possibly chase him down if he ran off.

"They want to watch me overnight, right?" Mephiles looked back with narrowed eyes. "Might as well get there on time. They already think I'm a homicidal maniac, so the least I can show them is that I pay attention to the clock... Good night..." He disappeared into the hall and slammed the door, or rather, tried to but got it stuck on the door prop thing that locks it open after a certain point and had to pull it forcefully, then opened it just enough to slam it the second try.

"I'll go after him this time..." Rouge said. "I think the both of you need to explain a few things..."

"_Wait, you're leaving me with _him?" Dark pointed to Shadow. "_I'm sick, injured and bedridden! Do you know how easy it will be for him to-_"

"He won't kill you." Rouge assured, already at the door. "Right, Shadow?" She added, looking at the hedgehog, who gave a grunt and a shrug of the shoulders, which still didn't help Dark feel any better. "There, see? You'll be fine..."

"_Easier said than done... you're the one leaving..._" Dark muttered too softly to be heard, shaking his head as she left. He looked over at Shadow, who was circling the foot of the bed, arms folded and eyes on Dark. "_Don't you ever rest at all? Or do you just pride yourself in making me as nervous as possible?_"

"All you had to do was tell us what tore at you, and you couldn't do that?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. "No words of comfort to help him feel better? No reassurance? Not even an explanation of what you might know?"

"_I said it wasn't him..._"

"That's not good enough here. The people who want to study and interrogate him need a solid answer. Rouge and I weren't there the whole time, so our account of things is as good as dung to them." Shadow stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes. "If you can't give a solid reason why it wasn't him, they won't accept the answer anyway, and maybe even claim your judgment was impaired because of how much blood you lost, or even those pain meds the doctors have you on right now to try and numb that."

Dark was silent, so Shadow continued.

"Do you even care about what's going on through his head right now?" There was a minuscule twitch in Dark's face as Shadow leaned in a bit. "Does it even bother you that he's being blamed for something that neither of you can explain? Do you realize what happened before you were brought here?" Dark had his teeth clenched now while he was glaring at Shadow, who continued. "All he remembers is finding you. Now imagine what the rest of the scene must have looked like. A slash like that? How much spatter and how big of a puddle must be on the carpet before the bleeding was controlled? Can you imagine how terrifying to him that was? That it was on him? That-"

"_Oh, would you just shut up!?_" Dark snapped, having long gotten the point before it was even discussed. "_You think I don't know that!? I know what's going on! Your girlfriend knows even! The Chao! The dog! We all know, and you're the only one too stupid to listen to the hints and piece it together!_" During this, he was ticking off each point with on his fingers and on the last sentence, he smacked the back of his right hand into his upturned left hand in tune to every other syllable. "_You're his best friend! Instead of focusing on trying to bust me for something I'm not going to do, why don't you do something useful for all of us and figure out what we did!_" He ended this all with a loud exclamation of a curse word, and flopped backward on the bed, taking deep breaths to counteract his breathlessness from yelling.

There was an awkward moment of silence from Shadow before he blinked and said: "S-say what now..?"

Dark let out a long frustrated groan, which was also due to overexerting himself. Taking another breath, he tried again more bluntly.

"_Y'know what?I might as well just flat out say it, seeing that things can't be any worse for me __than they already are, and I'm probably gonna get killed by him sooner or later, so here it is..._" Dark shoved himself up to be sitting now. "_Iblis is somehow in Mephy's brain right now, but also not. It's the same effects if he really was there, so I assume he did a sort of transfer or something, but he's also using that to screw with my Aura, with the effect being of two north ends of a couple of magnets, mine represented by the slightly smaller one. Mephy doesn't know, and I had hoped to keep it that way because I was aware of what was going to happen if he knew at all. Like it or not, I actually _do _care about what happens to him. You think you know him better because you're his best friend? I've got news for you... I met him first. I've known him longer. At times, I can even hear his thoughts. Not the words, but what the thoughts are..._"

Taking a moment to recover from the shock of what he just learned, Shadow blinked and frowned.

"You knew that your brother was in Mephiles' mind, and you didn't do anything about it?"

"_I was working on it!_" Dark snapped. "_It wasn't something that could be remedied at once. I had to create a plan of action and work from there. Until then, Iblis made me play along with his plan, making me pretend I didn't know what happened when Mephy's arm was cut. He took _my_ quill that _you _dropped when you tore some off my head and used it._"

"Why play along? If you had a plan, you should have done it before now..."

"_Did you not get it!? If I told anyone, he was going to make the both of us suffer! He wanted to mess with Mephy's mind and make him believe that he _was _insane, because he would not be able to recall any times that Iblis was using him. Iblis found out I told Whats-her-name-_"

"Rouge."

"_Yes, her! He found out that I told her and responded by first trying to suffocate me, then this!_" Dark gestured to his side with a bit of a furious air to the action. "_Now, if you want to do something about it, I suggest that you do so with haste, because he's going to find out eventually and it'll be just worse! Now please! Shut that light off and let me rest! I have a migraine working it's way past the Vicodin!_" That being said, he fell back on the bed again, this time on his side, with his back to Shadow. After a pause of waiting, he said: "_Now would be a lovely time..._"

* * *

Having caught up with his friends shortly after, or rather, he found Rouge, Mephiles having already checked in and was now in the isolated room, sitting on the edge of the bed in the room and looking quite tense.

"How long has he been in there?"

"At least a half an hour..." Rouge answered.

"Well, they won't be able to get a clear look at how he is if they force him to have to do it their way..." Shadow shook his head. "Listen, Dark just told me-"

He was cut off when Rouge gave him a quick smack and pointed to Mephiles, mouthing "Not within ear reach!"

They were on the other side of it, and in a nearby room, with monitoring equipment was the observers (A small handful. Once word got out that Mephiles had a look-a-like, most of the staff signed out for the night, with only a few brave volunteers offering to stay, since there was no way Thizon was going to be able to handle Mephiles and Dark by himself, as well as the rest of the in-patients that were having to stay overnight) with Thizon, who had his arms folded and looked disapproving.

"You know... How can you observe him if he's unable to fall asleep? That kinda voids the point of this..."

"Give him time, he'll have to fall asleep eventually..."

"For God's sake! He's just a kid!" Thizon shouted. "This is unethical and completely-"

"Unfortunately for you, Eric..." Shela said, sitting in a chair on the opposite end of the room, holding her glasses by the frame in her hand idly as she explained. "You're not in any position to complain. I have more authority than you do..."

"Why do you always have to do this to me?"

"You need to stop attracting unusual patients then... especially the nutty ones..."

"He's not crazy. He's just easily intimidated and terrified."

A knock at the door caused everyone to jump. It was Shadow.

"Excuse me... but I believe that this is getting nowhere. Perhaps I can try something?"

The cat scoffed and said: "I hardly can see what you might have in mind that would be better than what we're doing..." All present but Shadow and Thizon nodded in agreement.

"Well, _Shela..._" Thizon said with a edge that Shadow didn't think existed with him. "Shadow here is Mephiles' best friend. Surely, he would be able to detect if anything was out of the ordinary with him, right?"

"If so... then why didn't he do that before now?"

"That's not important right now..." Shadow shook his head. "But I have an idea... but we'll have to wait until he falls asleep until I can do anything..." There was a pause and then he added. "Hey, y'know what else? After this is all over, can we get an appointment set up for him so we can test him for narcolepsy? He's been falling asleep at the most random of times, and sometimes often..."

* * *

Mephiles didn't want to fall asleep. He was afraid that something was going to go wrong. That something terrible was going to happen.

_What if they're right? What if something really is wrong with me..? What if someone else gets hurt..? I mean... Dark's been hospitalized already... _Dark _of all people! At least he seems alright now..._

As it was getting into the late hours of the night, Mephiles' eyes were getting heavy. No matter what he tried, there was no change in effect, and before he knew it, his brain had already decided it was time to enter REM.

Everyone in the monitoring room, Rouge including, having joined them, were watching. The surveillance quality video showed Mephiles falling asleep, and grabbing one of the pillows to hold onto. After several minutes, his eyes opened and he sat up, looking more wide awake than he should have been. He glanced around the room and frowned, shaking his head and telling himself something that no one could hear because there wasn't a sound recorder installed.

"Well, that's unusual already..." Shadow said. "He doesn't sleep that shortly, and he's not that wide awake if he does wake up that quickly..."

Everyone watched as the crystalline hedgehog slid off the bed and paced the room, slowly as if thinking, six steps across either way with equal increments before doing an about face and repeating the process, arms held behind the back as he rocked his head from side to side slowly with his eyes closed, an unfamiliar smirk to that face crawling across it.

"That's very unusual for him..." Shadow said slowly, stealing a glance at Rouge, who had her ears perked to try and catch sounds none of the others were hearing.

"What did you do? Soundproof the place?" She shook her head and glared at the cat. "Because a lot of the sound is being absorbed before it even reaches my ears..."

"Y'know what?" Shadow said before anyone else could start talking. "I'm gonna just do it now... It's obvious something is wrong here, and he's already not acting like he should be..." He reached into one of the two back packs (they had made sure to grab them to be sure the Emeralds weren't left unguarded at their home.), pulled out an Emerald and handed the bag to Rouge.

"Are you sure that you should use _that_ one?" She eyed it with a concerned glance.

"I'm sure this one is going to help the best..."

"Shadow... Remember what it does to him..." Thizon reminded, having a good knowledge of up-to-date Emerald reactions with Mephiles.

"I'll be careful..." Shadow assured and left the room, only to nearly trip over someone who was sitting just outside the door, once the door was closed.

Dark looked at him with a distant look, eyes half closed and somewhat tired looking.

"Y'know... you should be back in the room, you're not in any fit state to be walking around..." Shadow said without any lean to any particular emotion.

"_... They say I should be here..._" Dark said slowly, closing his eyes for a few seconds.

"Who said what?"

"_... I Saw it... the clearest one... it said that I should be in this hallway..._"

Shadow, not really sure if Dark was just delirious or not, raised an eyebrow and nodded in a way that said that he wasn't sure if he should take it seriously.

Dark opened his eyes and saw that, and glared a little.

"_... I'm not making it up... I just know what might happen if all goes to it's order..._" He said, folding his ears back sluggishly. "_... When the time is right... throw it at him... right in the chest..._"

"Okay, I'm not sure if you're trying to tell me something or if you're having a bout of insanity right now..."

"_... Am I making coherent sentences..?_"

"Yes..."

"_... Then my mind is in the right place..._" Dark made a small smile and giggled a bit, face a bit flushed, perhaps from a fever. "_... Or maybe not... I dunno... But just so you know... throw it at him..._"

Shadow had one eye narrowed, perhaps a bit weirded out by Dark's odd behavior.

"_... But not right away... lull him into a false sense of security... then make your move..._" Dark nodded with an exaggerated movement of the head, as if he was over emphasizing everything. "_... You'll know when... you'll know..._"

Shadow nodded quickly as Dark started laughing softly to himself, pulling at his ears as Shadow spun around to get out of there, muttering to himself: "Well, _that_ ranks up in my chart of freakiest things I ever saw..."

Finally at the door of the observation room, Shadow paused.

"Great... how should I do this? 'Hey, Meph... I heard there might be a fire demon taking up residence in your brain! Hold this Emerald for me, will ya?'. That sounds stupid..." Shadow turned the gem over in his hands and pondered for a moment before getting an idea.

A couple knocks on the door as he peered into the small barred window on it, Mephiles jumping in surprise. Cautiously, the crystalline hedgehog made his way over to the door and opened it slightly, peering through the crack between the frame and the door.

"Oh, hey, Shadow! What are you doing here?" Mephiles exclaimed in mild surprise. "I thought I was supposed to be left alone all night..."

"Change of plans... they decided to try seeing if talking will help out..." Shadow said, shifting the Emerald from side to side in his hands, watching carefully as Mephiles' eyes trailed after it. "They figured that you'd talk better if it was either me or Rouge and they hope that we can read you better..."

"Alright... come in then..." Mephiles grinned and opened the door wider to let him in. "What's up with the Emerald?"

"I figured we can toss it back and forth while we talk." Shadow explained. "Kinda like a Koosh Ball."

"A what?"

"Koosh Ball. You ever hear about kids using one to toss back and forth while talking?" Shadow said, giving him a fake surprised look. "It's more common when they're still elementary aged, but it's used in older kids too. Adults even. You just toss it back and forth between the ones talking, or you can hold onto until you're done, and toss it back..."

"That's it?" Mephiles tilted his head. "What's the purpose?"

"It's kinda an icebreaker..." Shadow gave the Emerald a toss then tossed it to Mephiles, who caught it. "You start... try and remember what happened before you remember finding Dark..." He said. "You can sit down if you want to."

"I'll be fine standing, I think..." Mephiles said slowly, tossing it back. "Let's do it back and forth."

"Kay... but try and try and remember..." Shadow tossed it back, which this action was to continue after each statement.

"Well... it's really fuzzy..."

Toss.

"Go on..."

Toss.

"I... I remember falling asleep, and there was a big blank space of time I think I was asleep..."

Toss.

"Yeah?"

Toss.

"Uh huh... The next thing I knew... Dark's blood was everywhere and he was on the ground and screamed... both of us..."

Toss.

"But before now, you said that he already looked like he died..." Shadow said slowly, giving him a look.

Toss.

Mephiles caught the Emerald, looking a bit nervous.

"Well, I mean... that was pretty scary as was..." He tried correcting. "It all happened so fast... I might have just been too freaked out to think clearly..."

Toss.

Shadow caught it, and frowned a little.

"Uh huh... What happened too fast?"

Toss.

"When my claws tore into his side and ripped the flesh..."

Toss.

"You said you didn't remember..."

Toss.

"I'm just speculating..."

Toss.

Shadow caught the Emerald again. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"Tell me... what color is this Emerald?"

"Red..."

"Thank you... I thought so..." Shadow said calmly, shifting his fingers around it to get a better grip. "Y'know what else? You're a terrible actor, Iblis..."

The shock of being found out made his eyes go wide. He bared his teeth and growled, getting ready to jump at Shadow.

But Shadow threw the Emerald with enough force to knock the crystal hedgehog to the ground. Having been hit in the chest with it, Mephiles reacted by screaming in pain as he shoved it off and scrambled back just as Iblis' orange Aura peeled off of him and made a run for the door. Shadow tried making a grab for it, but his hands only passed through air. Deciding that he had more important things to handle now, Shadow crossed the room to Mephiles, who was leaning against the bed on the floor with his knees to his chest and arms wrapped around them, rocking himself quickly, shaking and whimpering.

"... Th-that thing was in my brain..." He stuttered. "... H-he used me t-to hurt D-dark..." His eyes watered as he looked up at Shadow, biting down on his lower lip. "... I-it _was _my hands th-that did that to Dark... It _was_ me..."

"It wasn't..." Shadow said, getting eye level with him. "Dark explained everything. Iblis was trying to hurt both of you, and made him keep it a secret. Dark told Rouge, and that's why he got hurt..."

"... He g-got hurt trying to help me... everyone g-gets hurt when they help me..." Mephiles shook his head and tore his eyes from Shadow's to look at the ground.

"That's not true... Not everyone..."

There was a sudden scream that echoed the halls as Shadow and Mephiles both snapped their heads up.

"Th-that's Dark!" Mephiles gasped, body shuddering. "S-something's wrong... he's t-terrified!"

"Wait here..." Shadow instructed as he hurried to the doorway to lean out and look down the hall.

Claw marks at the doorway trailed down the hall in the tiling, looking as if something had been dragged away. What was even more unsettling was the occasional spatters of blood that had been smeared by whatever had been dragged.

Mephiles was at the door as well, and shuddered, holding his hands to his mouth as he laid eyes on the sight.

"Oh, geeze... I think I'm g-gonna throw up..."

"I told you to stay over there!" Shadow yelled. "There's a reason that I tell you those things!"

Before another word was said, an even shriller version of the same voice screamed again, followed by several muffled grunts of pain, and finally a loud **THUMP** that sounded like an echo in a cramped space.

It sounded like a stairwell...

"Stay close..." Shadow instructed, grabbing Mephiles' wrist, taking note of how much his muscles were shaking, and pulled him down the hallway to find the stairs, following the claw trails.

When they found the stairs, they both cautiously peered down, though it was too dark to see.

Wondering if he was going to regret it, Shadow felt around for a light switch and flicked it on.

Mephiles almost fainted again.

Laying at the bottom of the stairs, curled up and bleeding from some new minor to moderate scratches, was Dark.

Both hedgehogs breathed a sigh of relief as Dark groaned and lifted his head a little before fainting, having shown signs that he was still alive.

Shadow was already down at the bottom with him, checking his pulse and taking note of the new injuries.

"He's still alive... but we need to get help now..."

Mephiles didn't move. He couldn't. He was still in shock.

* * *

Don't worry. Dark's not dead. O_o

I dunno how this got like that, but it worked into quite a crazy chapter. I figured that if Iblis knew that Dark told, he would react quite like this...

And poor Mephy is stuck in the middle...

See ya next time. ^^


	31. Dark's Nightmare

Alright... that's a long enough wait, I think.

Just as a heads up, Dark is going to be traumatized, so keep that in mind...

* * *

"Mephiles! Snap out of it! This is no time to be spacing out!" Shadow shouted, seeing that Mephiles had yet to really move.

Mephiles shuddered and took a step back, shaking his head slowly.

"... Not supposed to happen... H-he was supposed to be in the room... he's hurt... it's my fault... it's my f-fault..." Mephiles brought his hands to his head and gripped behind the ears.

"Meph! This is not the time to be freaking out!" Shadow snapped, trying to keep Mephiles focused.

"... I c-can't hear him..." Mephiles said slowly, staring at Dark from the top of the stairs. "... S-something's wrong... I'm not g-getting anything from him... he must have h-hit his head..."

"Whatever it is, it's going to get worse if we don't do anything." Shadow reasoned. "I need you to stay focused and get help... Mephiles?" Said hedgehog had yet to move. "Alright, how about you stay here with him, and I get help? Can you do that?"

"... I can't hear him... he's blank..."

"Just calm down and get down here. Stay with him, and scream or something if Iblis comes back. I have to also get the red Emerald before he realizes we left it in the room..." Shadow told him, gesturing for him to come down.

Mephiles nodded numbly, though it was obvious that he wasn't hearing any of it. Shadow went to him to lead him down the stairs and instructed him to stay there until he returned.

Mephiles slid to the ground after he left, grabbing a fistful of quills in each hand as he stared blankly, his mind still reeling.

This should not have happened. What was he doing out of the room, anyway? How badly was he hurt? If he did hit his head, did it cause any damage? If so, how badly? Was anything broken? Was he going to be okay?

Mephiles mind ran through those repeatedly, willing himself not to look at Dark out of fear that he might get a good look at what was really hurt.

He heard a weak cough and a soft moan, and looked down anyway to see Dark curl up even more with half open eyes, staring at the wall... assuming that he was seeing, of course, because his pupils were so wide now, his eyes seemed black instead of green. It was hard to tell under the eyelids.

_They can't pin this one on me... there was a camera and Shadow to vouch..._ Mephiles thought grimly, pulling himself closer to the wall, trying to give Dark as much room as possible. _I can't hear him too well now... his brain is probably too jumbled from the mix of the fear, the pain and who knows what kind of trauma like that's going to do to him_..? _What should I do now? I don't know where he hurts most, do I don't know what I can do to help, and I don't think it's a good idea to try and reassure him... I don't think he'll hear it anyway... where are you, Shadow?_

* * *

Obviously, help was gotten, and Dark was currently back in the room, new injuries cleaned and bandaged, notably his head and one of his arms, which by the way it and the other was hurt and bruised showed that Dark had tried to stop his fall by putting his hands out.

Thizon was holding up an x-ray to the lighted board thing on the wall, fixing his glasses and studying it carefully as Mephiles tilted his head as he tried to understand it.

"What's that?" He pointed at something below where Dark's ears would be.

Thizon paused before answering as carefully as possible.

"I would say from having as bad a fall as that, especially after being thrown, I would guess that it appears that there is a small fracture in the side of his skull."

"Fracture?!" Mephiles shouted, forgetting that it was advised that they stay quiet. He realized that and corrected his volume. "A fracture? In his skull? That's bad, right? Really bad?"

"Depends on how well his body will react. It's quite possible that he could receive the best possible scenario out of it."

"But, won't there be a bruise on his brain?"

"The crack seems to have not broken past the skull itself. Any trauma to the brain may simply be a concussion, but all the same..." Thizon added, making a few notes on a clipboard and flipping through a couple pages. "I suggest that he remains here until we're absolutely certain that he's alright..."

"Could there a possibility that... well... h-how will..." Mephiles was starting to stutter a little, thinking of whether or not he wanted to voice his question, afraid that despite a good answer, the action of him saying it out loud would jynx it and make it come true. He shook his head and remained quiet, turning his eyes back to his friends to see if they had an idea.

"I'm sure he'll be fine..." Shadow said to reassure him. "I'm sure there's been worst, and there's that whole thing with you two where you have that connection and all."

Mephiles flinched terribly.

"I d-don't think it works anymore..." He explained. "He's gotten hurt a lot now, and I haven't really felt it past sensing it. Otherwise, I'd be one with a cracked skull too, right now..."

"The connection's gone?"

"Not totally..." Mephiles shook his head and dropped down in a chair, sinking down into it. "Recently, I've been able to hear him... not really hear, but I mean that I can feel what he feels, even if he can't feel himself feeling it..."

"That... makes not too much sense..." Shadow said slowly, raising an eyebrow.

"Dark and I have been pretty much mixed and matched together, and I'm sure that somewhere along the line, enough of us got left in the other, and I think that means that..." He paused and looked at Dark. "... I still can't hear him..." He added offhandedly, letting his ears fold down. "... He's either not trying... or... s-something is wrong with his brain..."

"Or, he could just be unconscious..." Shadow suggested, grabbing one of the magazines on the small table beside them.

"..." Mephiles sunk a bit more and took a deep breath. "But stairs are pretty bad to fall down. We already know that his skull is broken..."

"Cracked. It's cracked, and didn't reach the brain..."

"It's still a bad bonk to the head..."

"You're going to worry yourself sick, try and stay positive."

"But, I don't think..."

"You're a hedgehog, Meph." Shadow looked up from the magazine. "Earth hedgehogs react to stress by getting sick. Some lose their quills, even. Now, do you really want to be sick and bald?"

"Will that all happen at once?"

"Do you really want to find out?"

"N-no..."

"Then stop fretting."

* * *

It was at least the next morning before any signs of improvement with Dark, who had also been running a low fever during the night, which had been remedied before sunrise. The brain wave monitor's flat line (from lack of any use by Dark) started to jump a little, which Mephiles' ears caught as he was waiting for Rouge and Shadow to return, having left for the café area to pick up something for them all to eat.

A small grin crept on his face as an abrupt change in emotions in the air was felt. A void was filled with confusion and a response to pain, and he felt relieved at that.

_That means Dark's brain is starting to work again..._

The smile fade quickly however.

_But we still don't know if he'll be well if... _when_ he wakes up... _Mephiles sighed. _Iblis not only did a number on him, but terrified and... from the state of that hallway... didn't hesitate..._

His ears drooped.

_Why did he pick now of all times to start being more Mobian? If he was like he was before, he wouldn't have been hurt this badly, if any at all... _A gentle shake of the head, because no one else was there, and he was speaking with himself. _If he's Mobian, his body will be weaker than what he's used to. He's not going to realize that half of what he could do before is going to be hard, and already, his new experiences have been bad... Iblis is easily ten times worse than he was before... and... wait... Iblis is like what he was... but worse..._

Mephiles looked at him, seeing once again the striking resemblance between the both of them when Dark's facial features were at rest. His eyes were not permanently angled in a glare, as it would sometimes seem, but were in fact rounded in shape overall. He shared the same markings, and same fur colors, and even the number of tufts on the sides of their muzzles from the fur that fluffed out from growing longer than the rest. If not for the torn ear and ill state of his fur and body, Mephiles would swear that he was having an out of body experience and was looking at himself.

Such a surreal concept that was, that Mephiles stared blankly for a little bit before shaking his head quickly and thinking again.

_Why is he looking more like me than the last time I really thought about it? Have I really overlooked that enough that it seems strange to me now? It's only been over a month since we started being friends... again. And yet... it feels like years... _

He scooted the chair away a bit to hug himself as if he had caught a chill. He frowned again.

_Why are you trying to be like me, Dark? I'm just a weak, cowardly nervous wreck of a hedgehog... I only get through things and survive because I've been very lucky so far..._

Suddenly, he felt a wave of terror that was not his, crash over his head. Gasping in surprise, he looked back at Dark, who was shuddering in his sleep, his teeth clenched tightly, his hands gripping the blanket they were on, his breathing quite rapid as a short moan escaped on each exhale.

Mephiles leaned forward in both curiosity and unease. What could be going on in his mind to reduce him to this, to make unbreakable Dark like this?

Mephiles was half curious. Or at least, curious enough to want to touch his hand to Dark's arm to see what was in his mind and how he could help, but reason made him think better of it. He didn't want to risk more nightmares for himself. He had already spent half the night previous as wide awake as he could be so he didn't have to replay the night's events in his head.

He pulled his hand away, and wondered what he should do instead, a bit distressed at generally being unable to help Dark as it was.

He instead decided to just wait for his friends to return from their little trip, and just hugged himself and shuddered as Dark became more increasingly upset as the seconds passed...

* * *

The air was cold. He watched his breath become vapors and rise up to disappear from sight.

He didn't usually mind the cold so much... loved it, in fact. It was part of his element. The cold shadows that lurked under objects and creatures, that offered shelter from too much heat. He loved that... it made his element seem very important. Darkness was just as important as Light. While Light meant energy, heat... it meant life, really... liveliness, like activity in the day... Darkness was rest... coolness... it's time of day meant that the world could now be at ease, that it could take a break, and relax.

But right now... the Darkness was frigid. It made his muscles shake all over, his teeth vibrate against one another, and made him feel the desire to hold his extremities close to the heat from his body.

_That's odd... I've never felt this much of cold before..._ His eyebrows knitted in slow confusion. _Where am I..? Wasn't I at the hospital..? Wait... _He clapped a hand to his head, which was starting to ache on one side. _… I think I remember something now... I think I was being dragged or something... I can't remember... I don't remember much right now... why is that..?_

He didn't like that. It made him feel helpless and out of control. He needed to be able to remember...

A pulse of energy was near. A bad pulse. He didn't like that either. His fur stood on end as he stumbled back, trying to draw away from it.

He spun around and with a quick pace, he hurried as fast as he could away from it_, _stealing a glance behind himself before he looked forward just in time to stop several steps from a cliff edge. He frowned slightly... the same energy was down there as well...

_Why are my legs shaking? Why do I feel so scared right now..?_ Dark shuddered again, bringing his hands up out of instinct. Squinting, he could just make out an identical shape to himself on the other side of the break in the ground. For a moment, his heart lifted. As long as he was near Mephiles, he felt like he was going to be able to think better.

To his dismay, however, there felt like a drastic drop in temperature, and the areas not covered with crystals went numb and began to burn.

_How can I be burning if it's so frigid here?!_

Without realizing it, Dark's Aura flickered into view. He moaned in fear, knowing that no good was to come of that...

There was a shadow creeping across the grass as the gap between him and Mephiles seemed to get wider, and before long, Dark realized that the shadow was nearing _him_ as it crossed the length of the small cavern between him and Mephiles as it spilled onto his side.

Dark looked up at Mephiles and was dumbstruck that the shadow had avoided the hedgehog completely, and what was even more perplexing was that there seemed to be a light source where Mephiles was, as there was a circle untouched by the darkness on the ground at the hedgehog's feet.

Mephiles looked up at him and shook his head sadly, unable to make eye contact it seemed.

This was very unnerving to Dark. He called out the hedgehog's name, pleading for him to rescue him, to drive away the darkness even, if he could. A tendril of the shadow peeled off of the ground in a bubbling, oily mass and wrapped around Dark's ankle, making the shade screech in terror as Mephiles watched, his facial features giving away that he was very upset at having to watch this.

"_Mephy!_" Dark cried out as loud as he could as he hit the ground, reaching his hands to his ankle frantically as he tried to pull it free from the grasp of the shadow. "_Don't just stand there! Help! I-it's got my foot, a-and it's starting to tighten! Mephiles!_"

Mephiles didn't move, but Dark could see him shudder.

Suddenly, there was a tug at his foot and the next thing Dark knew... he was flung to the other bank, hitting the ground on his stomach and having the wind knocked out of him.

Gasping for breath, Dark looked up woozily to see Mephiles staring down at him, hands clapped over his mouth, eyes wide and shimmering as he shook his head again.

Dark coughed hoarsely as he tried to regain his normal breathing pattern, wondering why Mephiles was just watching instead of rushing to his side to pull him to his feet, as he was most likely to do in this kind of situation any other time.

After breathing in enough to regain the use of his voice, Dark asked once again for help, only to receive a very shocking answer:

"You s-said that I wasn't s-supposed to help you... you s-said this was your problem, and that you'd handle it..."

"_Wh-what do you mean? I'm asking for help right now! Mephy?! Mephiles!_" Dark's terror increased tenfold as the hedgehog looked away and started to walk away, the warm glow of the light that was around him leaving as well, making the air near Dark drop several degrees. "_Don't go! I'm sorry! _Please!_ Don't leave me! Don't-!_" Dark's eyes widened so much that he was sure that he must have looked bug eyed now. The tendrils had wrapped around both of his feet and were now dragging him towards the cavern. Dark screamed a high pitched shriek and clawed at the ground, trying to pull himself away as he grabbed handfuls of grass that were starting to rip out of the ground by the roots. "_MEPHY! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! DON'T LEAVE! I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW! HELP! HEL-_AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

A third tendril had wrapped around his chest and yanked him from the ground and back towards the darkness.

Dark hit the ground again and this time he dug his claws into the dirt, anchoring his lightweight body as best he could. But with his now shaking arms, he was sure this wouldn't last for long.

"_... You're not taking me without a fight..._" Dark grunted, bracing himself with every bit of strength he had. "_... I'm not going to roll over and give up..._"

"_... Always the hard way with you, isn't it, Little Brother?_"

Dark nearly collapsed from shock. Iblis?! He was causing all this?!

"_Let me go! Stop touching me!_" Dark demanded. Suddenly, he gasped in pain as the tendril around his chest tightened, making harder to breathe. Dark breathed harder and faster to try to make up for the oxygen deprivation. "_... St-stop it... B-brother... I c-can't breathe... st-stop... can't..._"

"_... Y'know... the time you spent trying to speak could have been used to breathing a little more..._"

The tendril squeezed a bit more, and Dark started to feel lightheaded as the air was forced out of him, the edges of his vision darkening. His hands loosened on the ground and he felt himself get pulled toward the shadow, only conscious enough to make out those familiar green eyes...  


* * *

And then he woke up, gasping harshly as he shot up from where he was lying down, Mephiles jumping back in fright as Dark bared his teeth and claws, ready to fight anything he saw.

his eyes shifted over to Mephiles and he glared, pointing a finger at him.

"_Why did you just leave?! Did you have any idea how terrified I was!? Huh!? Do you?!_"

Mephiles was confused. What was going on with Dark? What was he talking about? Didn't he know he had been asleep for hours? Maybe he had a terrible dream, and thought it had really happened...

"Dark... I've been here the whole time. I didn't leave..."

"_Liar! You left! He had me by the foot and you turn your back and left me there!_" Dark was shaking, very upset about this.

Mephiles looked him right in the eyes and said quite calmly: "I haven't left... and I certainly wouldn't leave you if you were in trouble. You must have had a bad dream or something..."

"_Don't lie to me! You left! You left! You left and he pulled me into the darkness!_" Dark was hysterical now. He grabbed the glass pitcher of water that was on the bedside table and threw it at Mephiles, who gasped and ducked out of the way as it hit the wall, showering the wall and floor around it with a dangerous mixture of glass, water and ice. Mephiles stared at that with wide eyes before looking at Dark again, just in time to dodge both glasses that was part of the set.

"Dark! Calm down! You're _hysterical!_" Mephiles shouted over the sounds of shattering glass and Dark's screaming accusations of betrayal. Mephiles barely missed dodging the clipboard with health notes that Dark snatched from the tray on the foot of the bed, the metal clip edge shaving off a few hairs as it missed him.

After running out of weighted things in arms reach to throw half a minute later, all the while, Mephiles wondering why no one had come to check out the disturbances, before he remembered that most of the doctors left earlier... Dark grabbed the pillow and tore it apart, grabbing handfuls of the polyester fluff in it and throwing it in random directions around the bed he was still sitting on.

Mephiles was still shocked by this outburst, having stayed still since the clipboard nearly nicked him. He blinked and looked down, seeing that he was standing in the puddle of water and glass shards, his feet protected from the slivers from the crystals that covered them. He blinked again after lifting his foot for a moment to see just how many shards there probably was, and looked up to see that Dark was off the bed now and was currently trying to shove the door open... a door meant to open inward to the room, so his efforts were for not.

_He's having a total meltdown! _Mephiles realized as Dark was pounding on the door with both hands, screaming out sentences that made more than half sense. _What did Iblis _do _to him!? _

Seeing Dark slide to the ground and start pulling his quills out one by one, Mephiles decided immediately to abandon the approach of baking off until this wore out and rushed over to grab his wrists and pry his fingers from his head to stop him from dequilling himself even further.

"Dark! Stop it! You'll hurt yourself! He's not here anymore! It's over!" Mephiles tried reasoning, holding both arms together by the wrists.

"_It's not going to stop! He's going to keep at it! He's going to take everything! You left! You weren't there!_" Dark tried pulling his hands free frantically. "_He dragged me away! I couldn't find you! They were wrong! I shouldn't have listened, but I did! Too much! Too much! What did I do?! Why does he hate me?! Why did he leave?! Why did Mephy leave?! Too much! Get out! Get out! Get out of my head! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!_"

Obviously, Mephiles, as well as any other, couldn't understand what Dark was trying to say. What was Iblis going to take? Who shouldn't Dark have listened to? Who did he think hated him that much that seemed to shock him? Hopefully not Mephiles, since he was trying hard to help and be his friend. And too much what? Whatever it was, Dark didn't want it at all.

Dark was gasping now, unable to catch his breath in his panic. Mephiles felt him try to bring his pinned hands to his chest, perhaps intending to claw at it in an attempt to breathe properly. Afraid Dark might hurt himself trying to, because of his sharp claws, Mephiles kept his hands pinned and attempted to instruct him on breathing slowly, hoping he was being heard while he stayed to the side of him, half dragging him away from the door and closer to the bed, but it was near impossible to get him back on it, so they were stuck on the floor.

After about a little over a minute, Dark slumped against him with a weak groan, considerably calmer and wheezing a bit as his breathing slowed to a normal level, the expression on his face was that of exhaustion now, his eyes drifting shut occasionally as he forced them open, half afraid to fall asleep again. He tried hard to avoid eye contact, perhaps ashamed of his behavior, and didn't want it addressed.

Mephiles looked over at the door to see Shadow, Rouge, Thizon, and, to Mephiles' surprise and displeasure, Shela, all of whom were taking in the state of the room, which seemed worse than a mess but less than a disaster. Mephiles and Dark were both on the floor, with Mephiles sitting as Dark leaned against him, on the verge of falling asleep again as Mephiles held his wrists together, with a patch of missing quills in another quill clump on Dark's head and the quills on the floor at the door a tell tale sign as to why.

"What happened in here?" Rouge said, her and Shadow taking care to step around the shattered pitcher. "We all heard screaming in here..."

Mephiles looked at Dark, who folded his ears and tried hiding his face in Mephiles' side. He was trembling a little, most likely from both the severe panic attack and the adrenaline rush from all the energy he put into throwing, mauling, and screaming.

"... Dark had a nightmare..." Mephiles said quietly. "... It's not his fault... he was just scared..."

* * *

It was obvious that it was going to be a while until Dark was back to normal. Thizon made sure to run a few simple tests on him that were easy, like reflexes, reactions, and taking note of his word associations to the "What comes to mind when I say..?" tests.

The small flashlight used to test Dark's retinal reflexes was swatted out of his hand with Dark's before the shadow brought his hands to his eyes in reaction to the light.

"He doesn't like light..." Mephiles explained. "He says it makes his eyes hurt..."

"So, he's normally photosensitive?"

Dark nodded slowly, before squinting over the top of his hands.

"_... I don't like light..._" He muttered.

"Okay, then..." Thizon said. "I can have the ones overhead dimmed a bit if that helps..."

Dark nodded with a groan when that was done. He felt that it was still a bit bright, but it was tolerable now.

"Now... can you tell me if you think you have any medical conditions you think would be important to know in order to further aid my assistance in helping you?" Thizon said. "Anything... insomnia, somnambulism, depression..."

Dark shrugged, looking at his feet.

"Dark, he's trying to help..." Mephiles urged. "If you want... I can tell him what I know..."

Dark didn't answer.

"Would it be okay to do that?" Mephiles asked.

Dark shrugged again, this time halfheartedly and with a moan that Mephiles took for a "Whatever..."

"Okay..." Mephiles nodded. "But don't hesitate if I miss something, or say it wrong..." He added as an attempt to encourage his cooperation.

Another shrug. Mephiles sighed softly.

"From what I've gathered from knowing him and looking some stuff up..." Mephiles began. "His most notable is that he suffers from occasional to frequent migraines, which I think that they might be triggered by something that reminds him of something he's trying to forget..."

"That's quite possible." Thizon nodded. "For how long?"

Mephiles looked at Dark, but Dark didn't look up.

"He says for as long as he could remember... which goes as far back as after he tried to erase the things he tried to forget..." Mephiles said. "I think that means then... well... all of his life."

Thizon wrote this down as Mephiles and Dark were being watch by the rest of the group from earlier (Shadow, Rouge and Shela). Mephiles twitched and said, without looking behind himself: "You guys can blink anytime now... I hate being stared at..."

"Alright... what else can you tell me?" Thizon said while attempting to test Dark's kick reflex, only to get the little hammer snatched and thrown at the wall by the one being tested.

"I think he might be bipolar too..."

"Why is that?"

"Because he jumps between extreme emotions in a blink..." Mephiles shifted his eyes back at Dark, who was still looking at the floor. "He's either really angry, really sad, or a couple of times I've seen him really happy and really excited. I say 'really' because it way more than normal. The shift is very quick... I can't even blink fast enough to keep up with it. When he's in his best moods, he overestimates himself, has a lot of energy and thinks he's the best thing ever... and before you know it, he's shifted and brooding... he says he's been depressed before, and when he is, he'd rather curl up and sleep it off. He... uh..." Mephiles paused for a moment, trying to word this right. "He... he might have had one or two auditory hallucinations in the past month..."

"Uh-hmm..." Thizon noted for reference as he held a pen up and moved it from side to side to see if Dark's eyes would follow. They did... until he grew tired of it, and grabbed the pen and threw it on the floor.

"And... I dunno if this is medical or leaning more on the Chaos Energy study side..." Mephiles added cautiously. "But his body makes more Chaos Energy than he can put out, so it builds up really badly, and explodes into a rage fit. His Aura is red... if that means anything..."

"We're still early in our Chaos Energy research here..." Thizon said. "But, red is an unusually powerful one. If he's near your age, he lacks the proper control on it. Those with it have a pretty tough time..."

"_I have enough control on it, thank you very much!_" Dark snapped, breaking his quarter of an hour of muteness. He looked pretty angry. "_I don't need someone I don't know telling me I'm not powerful enough to control myself!_"

"Dark! He was just saying that your Aura is strong, and you just need to work on in a bit more!" Mephiles tried to reason with him, seeing that this could get out of control very quickly if not contained. "He wasn't trying to make you feel bad!"

"_You don't know! None of you know! He always mocked me! I'm the weak one, he says! I'm not good enough! Not good for anything!_" Dark was relapsing, everyone stepping back and out of the way when he shoved all the containers of cotton swabs, tongue depressors, covers for those ear checkers, one use thermometers and q-tips off the steel table, then kicking the table over as well. "_Nothing ever goes to plan! Nothing ever stays! It's taken!_"

Seeing that Mephiles was in a bit of shock, Shadow decided to lend a hand.

"You're overreacting... you should calm down before you get yourself hurt..."

Dark flinched and rounded his eyes on Shadow, pointing at him accusingly.

"_You! You're the worst of them! What did I ever do to you from the start?! I didn't even _know _you until you showed up to seal me in that-_" Well... that can't be spoken out loud... "_Scepter! You took a _decade _of time away from me! TEN YEARS! And what do you do after that?! You totally forgot it ever happened!_"

"That... that's because it didn't when that thing broke..." Shadow said, feeling a smidge helpless as Dark continued to vent on him.

"_Liar! And then what happened after that?! You took Mephy and made him _your _friend! He was mine first! Mine! He was there the whole ten years! And you come in and get him in _half_ a year?! And then you criticize me, and call me insane, and a monster and expect that I'm going to do something wrong! You're almost like me! And _I'm_ the one everyone hates! What makes you so special?! What?!_"

"You're forgetting that-" Shadow looked up to see Mephiles shake his head and make frantic gestures in the air, trying to tell him to not mention why Dark was perceived as his description.

"_Forgetting?! Oh, _really?!" Dark laughed loudly, eye wide and touched with a bit of insanity. "_Oh, wow! That's a laugh! _I _forgot something too? I _know _what I forgot! I _made _myself forget! But it just didn't work because I forgot _too much!_ But, _you _forget, and _you _have everything go right!_"

His Aura was starting to spark off around him as it started to build up like a static charge.

"Oh, _no..._" Mephiles groaned as Dark's eyes were glowing a solid red now, the worst sign that something was about to go off even worse. The air that shared the Aura was making Mephiles' fur stand, and it was getting too powerful. Without thinking, Mephiles grabbed from the backpack the red Emerald and flung it before his hands started to burn, watching what was going to happen, a bit shocked that he actually did that.

The Emerald hit Dark, and in an amazing display of power, all of the excess energy pulled from Dark and shrunk into the Emerald, which hit the ground with a musical chime, crackling with red Energy all around it as Dark blinked and slid to the ground in confusion.

"_... Wh... what just happened..?_" Dark said calmly, no trace of his outburst visible other than in everyone's shock. "_... Wasn't I just getting my eyes checked..?_" He looked at the Emerald on the floor, and flinched, pulling away from it before saying: "_... Should that just be lying around like that..? It shouldn't be near Mephy..._"

Shadow reached down to pick it up, only to drop it quickly as he drew his hand back with a hiss of pain. The surface of the Emerald was hot as fire, and blackened the fingertips of his gloves.

Dark touched his fingers to his face and drew it back, arching his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at his digits.

"_... That's odd... I don't remember feeling sad..._" He said placidly, looking up with a dazed expression, which didn't match at all to the tears streaming down his face.

* * *

Looks like poor Dark is troubled. Anyone want to join in a group hug around him to let him know he's loved?

It's actually quite hard to write out hysterical dialogue, especially if you want it to not only tell you what's on the mind, but what might come later...

And... I think that last sentence there is making me tempted to sketch out what that might look like.

Ever had that happen? Where you're crying, but you don't know or feel why? So it's like your brain and heart were left out in that activity? It's very confusing...

*sigh*

Who thinks next chapter, Dark should adopt a kitten he finds or something? I've been tempted to let him find one, and try and keep it, which would be an easy way to show his soft side, since he likes animals. I have a cute scenario of him finding one plnned, but I think you guys might think I'm making him too soft now. What say? A kitty, or no?


	32. Tape

Alright... moving on...

Iblis sighting at the end of the chapter... ;P

* * *

"What are we going to do? We still need two Emeralds, and Dark's pretty much gone bye-bye!" Mephiles said quietly to Shadow while the both of them were just outside the room with Rouge, trying to be out of earshot of Dark, Mephiles worried that any discussion involving his state would set off another tantrum like earlier. "We can't leave him here, because Iblis would want that."

"But we can't drag him around if he's going to explode like that again..." Shadow said. "He'd draw too much attention, and he's nearly impossible to contain. We don't even know what would trigger it..."

"We're not leaving him here. Iblis has more than once proved that even the hospitals aren't safe to be alone in..." Mephiles shook his head. "We'll have to work around this..."

"How, exactly?"

"I dunno... but we can't-" Mephiles stopped in mid sentence to see Dark standing at the doorway, holding some pages and a book in his hands that he must have found in the room.

"_... I took these out... and can't put them back..._" He held up the pages, the edges torn on one side, the rest half crumpled in his hand as he looked at the book desperately. "_... I think I broke it..._" He muttered, shaking his head slowly. He shuddered and let his ears droop.

Mephiles acted quickly and got the book from him and pried the pages out of his hand.

"Well, that's not too bad, Dark..." He said, flattening out the creases and closing the cover around the pages. "All we need is a little tape, and it'll be fixed... just like we did with your notebook..."

"_... Can't fix what's past broken... not enough tape..._" Dark kept his eyes on the ground.

"Dark. It can be fixed..."

"_... Not enough tape... Not enough for me..._"

"Oh, no... Dark... you don't need tape..." Mephiles was seeing where this was heading.

"_... Then I'm like that book..._" Dark mumbled. "_... Can't be fixed all the way... you can mend it... but it will always be broken... never the same again..._"

"You'll get better. Trust me." Mephiles handed him the book back. "The worst that can happen is that you stop trying."

"_... I heard whispering..._" Dark shoved the book back in his hands. "_... What's going on over here? What are you hiding?_"

"Nothing. We're talking out here because I didn't want to give you a headache..." Mephiles said, once again handing him the book, wondering why he was just giving it back. "Since your head got hurt, it's going to be a bit sensitive..."

"_... I'm not sensitive..._" Dark pushed the book back again.

"I mean that too much sound might make it hurt..." Mephiles lied, giving him the book again. "Oh, now really... I don't want the book..."

"_I don't want it. I don't need it..._" Dark held it out to him again.

"It's not mine."

"_Take it._" Dark whined. "_It's only broken..._"

"But it's not my book. It belongs here!" Mephiles grabbed it and dropped it in one of the chairs near the door.

Dark looked at the book, then at Mephiles, then at the book again, looking a little frantic.

"_... I-I don't belong here..._" He stuttered.

"Because you aren't a book. You belong where you do."

"_Where is that?_"

"Which people who are going to help you get better." Mephiles sighed, looking over at Shadow and Rouge to relay his slight annoyance about Dark constant questioning.

"_Because I'm sick?_" Dark asked while pointing to his head.

"Because you're _hurt._" Mephiles emphasized.

"_Hurt?_"

"Yes. Because you fell down the stairs."

"_I was thrown..._"

"You still got hurt."

"_And, I'm going to get better?_"

"Yes..."

"_When?_"

"I dunno... it could be anywhere from days, to weeks to..."

"_Years?_"

"Oh, I really hope not..."

"_... You don't like me like this..?_" Dark bit his lip.

"I like you when you're you..."

"_So, I'm not me?_"

"No, I mean that I still like you..."

"_But, I'm sick..._"

"You're hurt..."

"_I'm broken..._"

"We'll fix it... I mean it."

Dark shook his head.

"_Can't._ _Not enough tape..._"

"It doesn't have to be tape!" Mephiles shouted, getting tired of this now.

"_Then it can't be fixed... I'm sick..._"

Mephiles felt like crying.

* * *

After several days of testing to check Dark's damage out completely, it was proved that the fracture was healing well, and that there was no lasting physical damage that couldn't be fixed.

The stitches on his stomach wound could be removed as early as two weeks from now. The bruises were still a bit sore, but they were clearing up, and even the one on his head near the fracture was getting smaller. His quills would need a while to fill out again. The cuts on his face that Iblis had left the first time had nearly finished healing, and aside from the cracked skull, it was amazing that nothing else was broken.

However, Dark's mind was still injured. He didn't like it when Mephiles left him alone, and when no one else was there with him in a room, he'd scream and howl in fright until someone rushed in, and then... nothing. He'd be alright again. Grinning and giggling like nothing happened at all.

If he didn't like something, he'd let you know. Not by telling, but actually swatting it away with a slap of the hand. Sometimes he'd throw it too.

He had suddenly taken up the action of trying to mimic Mephiles, much to the hedgehog's displeasure. With his eyes on him, Dark would try and copy the same movements and gestures until he got bored.

He spoke in shorter sentences than he used to, though his vocabulary seemed unaffected, and he still spoke in double meanings, making it very hard to tell if he was still on the same subject sometimes.

The list went on.

"What's the soonest we can get him out of here, because we're on a very important schedule right now that involves two Chaos Emeralds, a demonic twin brother, five other Emeralds, me not dying, and getting Dark back to normal that cannot be interrupted or... well... I die, he dies, we all die... like... the whole world dies." Mephiles said in a somewhat rambly manner to Thizon as Shadow and Rouge were with him, Dark, hopefully, resting back in the room. "Like... I'm serious. If we don't get back on track... everything... this.... this whole place... boom. Gone. Just like that. Like... we'll all be obliterated in the worst way possible. Fire. A whole lotta it. From his brother. Fire. We'll die."

Thizon stared at him for a moment, with that kinda look you'd see on someone after just hearing that (The "Oh, crud... now what?" look) and sighed.

"He's still exhibiting abnormal behavior that is not his."

"Because he hit his head..."

"Yes... but he should remain here if-"

"Listen to me." Mephiles snapped his fingers. "I'm dead serious. The sooner we get those Emeralds, the sooner we can stop his brother, and the sooner he can get back to normal. See this face?" Mephiles pointed to his own. "See? This is the face of a kid who hasn't sleep properly in days. I haven't seen my Chao in days. I am missing a lot of great marathons on TV. Of my favorite shows. I am having to try my best to try and help Dark anyway I can. I also have to watch my back everywhere I go, and I can't trust anyplace to be safe right now. I am _not _going to leave him here. Now, either he comes with us, or we'll stay here and try and board up the doors and windows and _hope _that little inferno Iblis may cause if he wins, won't reach us because we are on the freaking fifth story of this building!" At the last part, Mephiles was gaining tone and shouted the last part.

"..."

* * *

"Hey, Dark. Ready to go?"

"_Hmm?_"

"To our house. They're letting you go now." Mephiles said, smiling a little.

Dark frowned.

"_... I thought I was supposed to get better..._"

"You will."

"_... Then I can't go... Have to stay here till they fix me..._"

"We can fix you over there too..."

"_... You don't know that..._"

"Neither do you..."

"_... Least I know I don't know..._" Dark folded his arms and hung his head.

Mephiles sighed.

"Y'know... our place is a lot nicer that here."

"_... But there's melon here..._"

"We can get one too. We can get a cantaloupe if you want... I know that you must like cantaloupe, since you keep getting it here..."

"_... Make it square..._"

"Huh?"

"_... I want a square cantaloupe..._" Dark made gestures to indicate a box shape in the air.

"Dark, I really don't know if they exist..."

Dark nodded quickly, as if he didn't care what Mephiles thought about it's existence.

"But, I really don't think that they-"

"Actually, Meph..." Shadow offered. "They do exist... They're grown in boxes, and grow in that shape."

"Well, then that changes everything..."

"But they cost a lot... the price translates to nearly a hundred dollars for the watermelon variant."

"Oh..." Mephiles folded his ears down. "Well... you might have to wait on that, Dark..."

"_... I want one now..._"

"We'd have to find a place that sells them, and I try and get you one."

"_Promise?_"

"I wouldn't be telling you I'd get you one, if I wasn't."

"_Hrmmmm..._"

"But, you're still coming, right?"

"_Is he..?_" Dark looked at Shadow a little nervously.

"Well, it's his house too..."

"_Does he have to? He doesn't like me..._"

"That doesn't matter. I'm not leaving you here."

"_... Don't leave me behind..._"

"I won't..."

"_... I'm always left behind..._"

"I won't let that happen again..."

Dark grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, or at least pulled him forward enough that if Dark let go, he'd fall flat on his face. The idea of that got Shadow to nearly laugh because of the silliness, while Rouge smacked him in the arm. Mephiles, being surprised, shouted: "H-hey! What-_Dark!_"

"_... Don't leave me behind, Brother..._"

"D-dark?" Mephiles wasn't sure if Dark was having another relapse in memory.

"_... Don't leave me like Iblis did..._"

Mephiles raised his eyebrows as high as he could so he could look over Dark's arms, since Dark had him in a not so traditional hug style.

"D-did you just call me-?"

"_... Cuz if you leave... I'll be alone again..._" Dark muttered. "_... If I'm alone... I have no one... I'll be alone..._"

"Is that why you were so scared earlier this week?" Mephiles said carefully, reaching a hand up to pat him on the arm. "With that nightmare? Are you just scared that I'll leave and forget about you?"

Dark hesitated then nodded very slowly.

"That's not going to happen."

"_... The whole world forgot about me for ten years..._"

"I never did..."

"_...You did for a little while..._"

"Not much..."

"_... I saw you leave..._"

"That was just a bad dream... it never happened..."

"_... I saw it... You left..._"

"No... I was there when you woke up..."

"_... But... But I saw you leave..._" Dark's eyes shifted just to the side of Mephiles' head, gaining a far off look as if he was starting to daydream.

"I'm not leaving now..."

"_... Promise?_"

"Yeah, of course."

Then Dark let go of him and dropped him on the floor, face first, giggling as Mephiles yelped in surprise.

"_... Remember... I want a square one..._"

Mephiles rolled his eyes before picking himself off the ground.

"You're still coming..." He dusted himself off.

"_... Square..._" Dark held his hands up in the indication of a box shape again, and nodded.

Mephiles looked over his shoulder at Shadow and Rouge with a half desperate look, as if begging them to help.

"Let's just go..." Said Shadow.

* * *

They waited until the sun was starting to cast long shadows on the ground, since Dark didn't want to go out in bright light, and neither of them thought to bring sunglasses for him.

There was nearly a problem when they passed the stairs, because Dark froze and stood still, staring at the stairwell with an intense look of fear on his face. Rouge spotted the problem first and offered that they should take the elevator to get to the bottom floor, since Dark was starting to look the same as Mephiles did in Soleanna when he glimpsed the pier. His face paled and he just stared, shuddering as if he was cold. The hospital had yet to replace the tiling, so it didn't help that Dark was also standing on some of the gouged ones. The blood was gone, yes... but it still looked the same.

"_... I can still hear it..._" He whispered.

"Hear what?" Mephiles grabbed his wrist and started to pull Dark towards the elevator, trying to keep Dark's eyes away from the stairs.

"_... Screaming... falling... hurting... nothing..._" Dark mumbled, shaking his head slowly while bringing his free hand to it. "_... It's ringing in my head... vividly... Never saw it... felt it, heard it... but never seen... Only saw flashes... then... blackness..._" He closed his eyes, trying to not look back at what caused him these injuries. "_... Blackness... then voices... It's still ringing..._"

"Well, you won't have to worry at our house..." Mephiles reassured. "We don't have stairs, and the carpet's been replaced. And we can find something to do so you won't hear it..."

"_... It's still ringing..._" Dark groaned, as if he was annoyed that he had to repeat himself. He opened his eyes, looked at Shadow, frowned and stuck out his tongue.

* * *

The sun was falling just behind the houses, so nighttime was at least a few hours away.

Having never really been outside enough, Dark kept changing his attention to everything new and unusual to him, pointing each thing out, which was enough to get on Mephiles' nerves, but he thought better of trying to scold him given that Dark was quite pleased at the moment, gasping in awe at some things, picking up what he could and showing it to Mephiles, and several things he knew right away what it was and gave his explanation of what it was, how it worked and why it looked that way.

"Tell me again why we can't Chaos Control, if we have five Emeralds?" Mephiles grumbled, looking at Shadow, who had a backpack with two, Mephiles having one of the other's with two, and Rouge with the remaining one in hers. "That way we aren't taking four hours to walk a half hour distance..."

"It's not taking four hours..." Shadow rolled his eyes, which Mephiles couldn't see because Shadow was ahead of him.

"Then why are we taking the long way?"

"Because with this many Emeralds, there would be too big of a surge of energy." Shadow said matter-of-factly. "We don't want Iblis to have a clear shot at finding us."

"He already know we're here!" Mephiles snapped. "Did you forget what he just did? He knows our house! And don't forget what he did to... Dark?" Mephiles stopped and looked behind himself, realizing that Dark had been silent for too long than what felt alright. To his horror, Dark was nowhere in sight. Biting back the urge to scream as loudly as he could in a panic, preferably jumping back, he rounded on Shadow. "Why didn't you tell me he was gone!?" He shouted.

"I didn't know!" Shadow countered truthfully, hands up in surprise. "I wasn't even watching him, I was up front!"

"Don't just stand there! Do something!" Mephiles snapped back.

During this, Rouge wasn't freaking out like the boys were. She had more sense than Mephiles at the moment to use her super hearing that Shadow seemed to lack, and pretty much figured out that Dark was not too far away. In fact, he was in an alleyway that they just passed.

"Instead of trying to kill Shadow..." She said, pointing to where they should look. "Maybe you should try over there..."

In less than a minute, they found him, and he was sitting on the ground by a metal trashcan with a grin on his face and his hands behind his back.

"Dark! Don't run off like that!" Mephiles shouted at him. "What if you got hurt, or Iblis found you, and neither of us knew?"

"_Uh, huh..._" Dark nodded his head quickly. "_... Found you something... really pretty..._" He said with a singsongish tone, giggling a bit.

"Is it another rock? You already handed me at least a dozen in the last five minutes..." Mephiles sighed, wondering if Dark even knew what he meant when he scolded him.

"_... It's a pretty rock... pretty big... pretty neat... pretty cooooool..._" Dark dragged out the last word, giggling a bit more. "_... It's clear... and shiny... and looks great with gold rings..._"

"Diamond?" Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "No, that's unlikely if it's big... Zirconium?"

"_... Close... but even better..._" Dark laughed and pulled his left hand from behind his back to show him...

"A Chaos Emerald!?" Mephiles, Rouge, and Shadow all said at once as Dark nodded quickly, still keeping his right hand behind himself.

"Dark! How did-! Why-! You-!" Mephiles sputtered, totally shocked as he took it from him. "What if had a re-! How did I not sense this!? I just passed this place!"

"_... Too many Emeralds on back... clouded up your radar..._" Dark patted himself on the head, still grinning. "_... You thought it was the rest..._"

"Possible..." Mephiles said slowly, turning the white Emerald around in his hands. "Still... you shouldn't have touched it... what if it did something to you?"

"_Can't... it's a wild card..._" Dark said. "_No color... no effects... just power... mimics others..._"

"You sure?" Mephiles said, waiting for the Emerald to do something to him. Nothing. "Hmmm... You still remember what they do, Dark?"

"_... Course... not stupid... just sick..._" Dark frowned and stick his tongue out.

"Hurt. The word you are looking for is hurt..." Mephiles reminded him with a heaved sigh. Mephiles' nose twitched and he raised an eyebrow just as everyone heard a small animal cry. "What else is behind your back?"

Dark hesitated before answering.

"_Tape..._" He nodded.

"Tape doesn't talk..." Mephiles folded his arms and stared at him. "What's behind your back?"

"_Tape._" Dark said with an annoyed whine. "_Thats' his name._"

"Alright... then who is Tape?"

Dark groaned, seeing that Mephiles wasn't going to play out this game before he showed him what was behind his back, which squeaked, whatever it was.

Dark pulled his other hand out from behind his back and brought his other hand in front to cup his hands. In them was a black and white kitten, still fuzzy, as if it hadn't lost all it's baby fuzz yet. It had to have been no more than six weeks old.

"_Tape._" Dark smiled as the kitten looked up with yellow eyes and mewed.

"Oh, Dark... I don't know if we can keep him... Shadow's mentioned before that we already have nearly too many Chao in the house..." Mephiles said carefully, seeing that Dark whimpered and started tearing up, widening his shimmering eyes and giving a pouty face. "Y'know... I think Sharpe got the same stare from you..." Mephiles added offhandedly, narrowing his eyes.

"Let him keep the cat..." Shadow said, causing Mephiles to snap his head to look at him.

"But, you said..."

"Well, if it's going to get him to stop crying, then let him have it." Shadow grinned, confusing Mephiles. "Who knows... it might even help him get better a little faster..."

"Ohhhhhhh..." Mephiles caught on and nodded. "Alright... But, Dark..." He looked back at Dark, who was holding the kitten, who was asleep now, quite happy. "Why call him Tape? That's not really a real name..."

"_... Simple, silly..._"

"Hmmm?"

"_He's making me feel better..._"

"Oh, I see..." Mephiles nodded slowly. "Cute..."

"_... Can fix now... have Tape..._" Dark looked up at him and smiled. "_You can fix me now, right?_"

"I didn't say I couldn't before..." Mephiles said, laughing lightly and rubbing at his eyes a bit, since for some reason, they were tearing up.

"_Have Tape now... won't be broken forever..._"

"Ah, let's go home now..." Mephiles smiled, reaching a hand out to help Dark up. Dark took in and got to his feet.

"_Mephy?_"

"Yeah?" Mephiles said. He was a little happier... Dark seemed to have gotten a little better, and he even used his nickname, since Dark hadn't used very many names to refer past pronouns during the week.

"_Thanks, Brother..._"

Mephiles blinked and took a moment to catch that. He looked at Dark again, blinked and grinned, wiping his eyes dry.

"I'd hug you... if you weren't covered in bruises right now..."

"_That's okay... another time..._"

As touching as this moment was, however, a certain someone was hiding just out of sight, balancing the blue Emerald in his hand.

"_He needs to stop making relationships... he never learns that it's just going to destroy him..._" Iblis scoffed, rolling his eyes. "_Take away his brother, he finds a new one... take away his sanity... he gets a kitten... weak..._"

Iblis looked at the blue Emerald again.

"_Shame they don't come in my color... stuck with a complimentary, and it doesn't do much for me..._" He huffed. "_Trick me, will they? Dark should be crushed! Traumatized! Bah! Maybe I should have snapped some of those bones of his... it's not nearly as bad as it _could _have been..._"

Iblis looked back at them, watching them walk away, Dark coddling the kitten. Then Iblis had an idea.

"_Fond of that, eh? Alright... I give you a week at least... let you get attached to it... then I'll take him from you, and it'll crush your stupid little heart..._" Iblis laughed to himself, then looked at the Emerald again. "_What kinda name is Tape, anyway?_"

* * *

I really don't know. But I felt like it should have a meaning. Tape. To fix him. I dunno...

Gives Dark another reason to fight against Iblis... ^^

Square Melons do exist. You should look them up, they look cool, and some are pyramids and others are shaped like faces.

Back on story subject: Oh, no! Iblis has an Emerald! Looks like he got tired of waiting for them to get them all, so that means that they have to come to him. And what does Iblis have planned involving Tape? (That's a really strange to say out loud sentence...) I guess we'll see...


	33. Logic

New chapter time! ^^ Happy 4 Days Before Christmas! ^^

* * *

Yellow eyes darted back and forth, tail twitching from side to side as the furry little body pressed flat against the ground. This time, he'd catch it for sure.

Kicking off with his back feet, Tape bounded after the hand that was on the ground, and he was sure he'd tackle it this time. He leapt up as high as his little chubby body was going to let him...

And Dark moved his hand to watch the kitten miss and tumble in a somersault, ending up on his back, looking up at Dark with an annoyed look. Dark laughed.

"The great thing about cats..." Mephiles said, smiling a bit at this quite unexpected scene. "Is that they can be entertained by anything. String, paper, bags, boxes... anything..."

"_... Simulates hunting behavior..._" Dark nodded. "_... Cats are predators... playing with those simulates a hunt... hones in on their prowess..._"

"Just watch out for those claws. It's easy to forget that five of six ends on a cat is pointy..."

"_... What's the sixth one..?_"

"Tail. All in all, you have to look out for the teeth and all four paws. Five total places to get mauled by..."

"_He's too small to maul... just scratch..._"

"He'll get bigger, y'know..." Mephiles added, bringing his feet up to the couch as he watched Tape tear across the floor in front of him, the cat circling around Dark, who was sitting on the floor. "Can't say how much, but those paws are medium at least... he'll probably be average sized..."

"_Paws are what..?_"

"Cats and dogs usually grow into their feet. If they have big feet that make them clumsy, they'll be big when they grow up." Mephiles explained. "Y'know... since he's so small right now, I think he's going to have to have smaller food bits so he won't have trouble eating..."

"_...?_"

Mephiles sighed.

"Here... let's go online, and I can find a web site that explains pet basics... they're not just to look cute..." He told him, getting up and heading to the computer, which he had to boot up. "You have to take care of special needs and need to know what to do if a problem occurs."

"_... How much..?_"

"Aside from learning about allergies, conditions, precautions, pet proofing things within reach, the teething stages, the necessities..." Mephiles listed things off as he tried recalling what he remembered having to learn when Krystal and Sharpe were just hatched. "First aid, potential dangers, what to avoid, what plants can be bad to have around them, what they can and can't eat... not all that much..."

Dark looked at him with a wide eyed expression, as if he found that to sound way more than "not all that much".

"Oh, c'mon. It's not really all that hard..." Mephiles shook his head, logging into the computer, having to pause a bit to try and remember the password. "After a little while, it'll be easy to remember. And easy rule is to put their needs first before yours. Make sure they have food before you get yourself something... basically what you do for yourself that they can do, do their's first so that you don't forget." After the desktop was loaded, he opened the browser and fired up the search engine. "There's also certain foods that can make pets sick, and same with plants."

"_... Why have those then..?_"

"It won't hurt us. We just have to be careful. There's a list there..." Mephiles showed him. "I'd print it out, but our printer is out of ink. And that's a lot to write out by hand..."

"_... I can do it..._" Dark said, scanning his eyes over the site. "_... Not much to remember... makes total sense... not too challenging..._"

"Really?"

Dark nodded. Reaching his eyes to one part, he frowned a bit.

"_... They can't be vegetarian..._" He sighed.

"Well, yeah. He's a cat. Cats eat small things... like rodents and birds and stuff... the food they make for them has all that..." Mephiles said.

Just then, both of them twitched their ears at the sound of a squeak, exchanging confused looks before looking back at Tape, who they had momentarily lost interest in minutes before.

The squeak was not from him, but rather, a small mouse, perhaps hardly out of the baby age, hanging by the tail in his mouth, with a look on its face that would, if this was a comic or an animated series, possibly be exaggerated with either X shaped eyes, or swirls, the poor thing looking like it fainted from fear of being caught. It didn't help the sight much that it's little tongue was hanging out either, as if to emphasize how startled it was.

Naturally, because the cat was in the same room as a nervous collapsed vegetarian and an easily spooked worry wort, both jumped back and screamed, Dark grabbing Mephiles, who yelped in surprise, already having accepted that Nature was going to decide if the cat was or was not going to do what they both thought it was going to do.

"Uh... Dark..." Mephiles said slowly.

"_... Oh, God! He's playing with it! Cats play with food they're about to eat!_" Dark obviously was expecting the worse.

"Uh, Dark?" Mephiles tried again, reaching a hand up to try and pry him off.

"_I brought home a little monster!_"

"Daaaaaark?" Mephiles tried again, realizing that Dark's hold on him was starting to constrict. "Uh... D-dark... I... You're making it hard to breathe..."

Tape was watching them with a confused look, then set the mouse down, which rolled on it's back, holding it's little paws in the air as, if you looked really closely, the poor thing was breathing like it was sprinting. Tape swatted a paw at it carefully, trying to urge it to get up and leave, since he could see that something he was doing was making Dark flip out.

Of course, from a bystander point of view, the swat of a paw that way may seem like he was playing with the poor mouse, and the nudge with the head doesn't quite look as innocent as it would if you were on the same level as Tape.

Luckily, for the sake of all of them, the mouse flipped over into its paws, shook it head quickly, jumped and bounced off, squeezing under the space under the door to escape.

Tape looked back up at Dark and mewed, which seemed to startle him enough that he fainted, causing Mephiles to stare in shock at this unusual reaction. Mephiles looked at Tape, who mewed innocently.

"Why did you have to do that _now _of all times?" He said, feeling silly for talking to a cat that couldn't talk back. "Couldn't you have waited until after he left you alone, or when he was feeling better?"

"Mew..."

"Oh, who am I kidding..? I don't speak cat..." He shook his head. "And, y'know... I really want the old Dark back. Fainting is supposed to be my thing... not his...."

"Mew..?"

"Iblis really screwed him up..." Mephiles said, still finding it quite silly that he was talking to the cat, but being that Dark was unconscious and Shadow and Rouge were having to head off to GUN to explain the next amount of days off that they might need, having already missed a whole month thanks to that time jump. He sat down in the computer chair, looking down at Dark. "I really think Dark was fragile from the start, now. He created his own disillusion to escape a nasty truth, and it took over as real for him. When Iblis showed up, it began to fall apart, showing him that what he knew was a lie, and that he lied to himself about himself..." He sighed deeply, pulling his feet up to the chair. "By Iblis causing physical damage to him, he showed Dark that his little world was not as safe from him as he wanted it. He showed Dark that he was not invulnerable, and that he could be hurt just as easily as me... I think the stairs was really the last thing in years worth of build up... stairs are simple, and also quite an average thing, but can cause so much damage if you hit them wrong. They said the crack in the skull never reached his brain, but somehow, his mind has been damaged anyway, as if it hit it dead on... I think it was the concept of the fall itself that did more than the pain from it. Dark fell, and he fell hard... figuratively, and literally..."

"Mew..."

"Oh, you probably don't even know what I'm saying... you're just responding to the tone in my voice..." Mephiles looked at Tape sideways, keeping his head in Dark's direction.

"Mew." Tape sounded off with an odd amount of definiteness.

"Dark... you better wake up now before this cat drives me crazy... I can almost swear he's trying to talk to me..." Mephiles sighed, sinking a bit to the point of nearly sliding out of his chair. He fixed that and said to himself: "Y'know... it probably can't hurt to try and use a bit of the healing stuff on his head right now... not a lot, but just enough to help..."

He made to reach his hand over to the injured area, before Dark's eyes snapped open and he slapped Mephiles' hand away, glaring at him as he sat up, much to the hedgehog's surprise.

"Hey, what's up with you? I was just trying to help." Mephiles said, seeing that Dark didn't look too happy.

"_For the last time, I said no!_" Dark snapped at him, folding his arms and frowning.

"Dark, I was only going to do a little bit... I'm not going to get myself hurt..."

"_Stay away from my brain! Stay out!_" Dark barked, baring his teeth, and narrowing his eyes even more.

Mephiles blinked.

"I wasn't trying to look in your mind..." Mephiles tried to reassure him. "I was only trying to heal a bit of that fracture, since that's got to hurt and all, especially with that migraine problem you have..."

"_Problem? Problem?! There's _nothing_ wrong with me!_"

"Well, saying that does seems a bit mean..." Mephiles said truthfully in a small voice before saying a bit louder. "Dark, I know you don't like hearing this, but... it's going to be a long time until you're back to yourself again..."

Dark looked at him before looking down, as if trying to avoid eye contact now. He didn't say anything.

Mephiles hesitated and continued with pauses.

"... I don't like saying this... just as much as you hate hearing it..." Mephiles let his ears droop as he looked at his feet. "... But... Iblis really screwed you up."

Dark flicked an ear up, having caught the tone in the voice, which had a slight shudder starting. He tilted his head to the side and looked up that way as Mephiles went on.

"... And the worse part is that I don't know how, what or why. He must have done something, because if it was just a crack in the skull as small as it was, and that you should have only had a concussion... it doesn't make sense that you're this way now." Mephiles took a slow and deep breath. "Something _is _wrong... and I don't know what. When I'm hearing your feelings, they sound scattered, and disorganized... maybe even melted together... but I'm not understanding any of it... at all..." He paused and added, half to himself: "... Maybe if I knew Iblis was using me... you wouldn't have been hurt like you were... I bet that's why Krystal was freaking out like that... she knew he was there... and Sharpe and Kai didn't want to be near me... I should have known something was up... you could have been killed, and only because you couldn't tell me what was going on..."

Dark folded his ears a bit.

"He did more than just throw you down the stairs, d-didn't he..?" Mephiles lifted his eyes just a little.

Dark looked away, and closed his eyes. Mephiles waited for an answer, and got a slow nod.

"What did he do?"

"_... Don't want to say it... not nice..._" Dark muttered. "_... You won't be happy..._"

"How do you expect me to be happy if I know s-something happened and you won't s-say so?" Mephiles said reasonably, clenching his teeth almost not noticeably. "I'll just be more upset knowing that it was so bad that you want to hide it..."

Dark just stared at him for a short while, then shifted his eyes to certain corners of the room, as if looking for something.

"_... Where's Tape?_" He said, obviously wanting to change the subject.

"Right behind you..."

Dark looked behind himself and found him, Tape brushing himself against Dark and crawling onto his lap, curling up and decided to nap there.

"Now you _have _to stay." Mephiles said, partly joking. "A cat that sits on you won't let you get up."

"_Watch me..._" Dark growled, getting ready to shove the cat off, then stopped, realizing that that would just be mean, especially after Tape stretched out a bit and draped himself, reaching his paw out at Dark's hand. Dark groaned in frustration. "_... Why couldn't you be a dog? Dogs are happy sitting next to people..._"

"You wanted him. You got him." Mephiles reminded. "You can't just pick them up while their cute and then get rid of them when they get on your nerves. You have to keep him until he's either not living anymore, or if he runs away or something..."

"_How long do they live?_"

"Cats can live up to twenty years if taken care of right... some are recorded to be nearly thirty."

"_I'll be old then!_"

"Good. He'll be your friend for a long time." Mephiles stated. "Now please... I want to know what happened. If the fall didn't do this to you, what did? I can't help you if I don't know what I have to work with..."

"_... You don't want to know it... not nice... not good... very scary..._" Dark whispered, shaking his head. "_... Don't want to tell... He'll just find out... He'll do something even worse..._"

"Is he making you keep that a secret too?"

Dark shook his head.

"Then what's stopping you from telling me?"

"_... You won't like it..._"

"I know I won't, but I have no other choice." Mephiles slid off the chair to be level with him. "I can't help you if I don't know what went wrong, and what he's done. Otherwise, It'll be like poking parts of your brain repeatedly until I get improvement... which isn't a smart idea. The only ones who know what happened right now are you and him. He obviously can't and won't tell, so it's all on you..."

Dark looked fearful and grabbed his ears, pulling them down.

"_No! No! What if he finishes the rest of it!? He almost got it all last time before you and Shadow showed up!_" Dark shouted, eyes really wide now. He shook his head. "_No! I won't be able to do anything! Please, no!_"

"Wh-what?" Mephiles was surprised. "What are you talking about? Rest of what?"

"_No! Stop it! What if he finds out!?_"

"Dark... please..." Mephiles was concerned again. "What are you talking about..?"

"_No! No! No! No!_"

Dark's racket woke up Tape, who jumped and darted under the couch, tail bristled like a bottle brush. Over the back of the couch, one could see three Chao heads peaking over cautiously.

Mephiles inhaled sharply, making this decision fast. He knew Dark was going to be very upset, but the only way he can find out now was to try and see in his mind.

"Dark, I'm really sorry... but I have to do this now..."

Dark saw his hand reach out and the shadow screeched shrilly, scooting back quickly and hitting his back against the wall, shaking his head rapidly.

"Dark, either you tell me, or I'll have to try and find out myself. Either way, I know neither of us are going to be happy with the results."

Dark shook his head quickly, keeping his eyes on the hand that was nearing as Mephiles made his way cautiously to him, leaning forward carefully, ready to jump back if Dark was going to fight back.

Dark bared his teeth and tried to bite him, forgetting that his hand was covered with the layer of crystals that protected it from Dark's longer than average canines.

The Chao all saw this as Dark trying to hurt Mephiles (though this was purely excusable, because Dark was panicking.), and because Chao are very attached to their owners, it was no surprise that they wanted to let Dark know that they didn't like that, by doing that in the best way Chao know how: Hissing, sticking their tongues out, and in several extreme cases, attempting to attack the person, though Chao hardly caused much more damage than you can expect such a small creature to do.

Two of those Chao were gifted with Mephiles' traits, such as claws and sharp little teeth, and the twins both tried to bite Dark's arm to get him to stop bitting Mephiles' hand.

Dark's eyes had a shift behind them and he reacted by slapping one of the Chao away, the other letting go to go after their twin, who hit the wall and flopped down with a dazed look, emotion dot in the shape of a twister. A cracked eggshell was a foot away.

Mephiles gasped and shoved Dark away, checking on Krystal, who was, for the first time he could remember, without her eggshell hat, showing him what her face was really like. She looked very different than Sharpe, with quill shapes that pointed down like the bottom sets of Mephiles' and she had light blue markings that mimicked Mephiles' side quills. Being a Hero type Chao, she had the two puffballs on her head that marked the middle on the top for the halo to hover. She was cute, yes... but right now, Mephiles was more concerned that she was hurt.

"Krystal! Wake up!" Mephiles nudged her, looking frantic.

She gave a Chao coo, and Mephiles breathed easier, glad that she was only dazed and not badly hurt.

"That shell must have absorbed the impact..." He said, watching Sharpe pick it up, only to have it split in two from being broken. "Oh... that was from the egg they hatched in..." Mephiles mumbled, scooping Krystal from the ground, the twister above her head blinking between that and the dot. Mephiles glared accusingly at Dark, who cringed, snapping out of his state of delusion. "What is _wrong _with you! You could have gotten her really hurt! It's lucky she was wearing that shell, or she might have had a cracked skull like you!"

Mephiles was obviously upset that his Chao had been hit, and momentarily forgot why Dark had done that.

Dark looked at the eggshell, biting his lip. He picked up the two halves and tried to stick them back together, holding them up with a half sad, half hopeful expression as he held the two pieces in place.

"_... We can fix it with tape, right..?_" He said in a small voice.

Mephiles sighed and shook his head.

"Tape won't work with it. It's too broken beyond repair... S-sorry..."

Dark stared with wide eyes until the shell shattered from being held too hard like that. The pieces scattered around him and he tried frantically to piece them back together, each one falling off from lack of solvent.

Then he broke down and sobbed, Mephiles joining with him...

* * *

A couple hours later, Dark spoke up again.

"_... He destroyed it..._" He said.

Mephiles lifted an ear up as he was jarred from his thoughts. The two were on the couch, watching TV while Mephiles was more occupied with making Krystal feel better, the poor Chao still quite shaken, but was calmed down considerably as she dozed off in his arms, hiding her face.

"Huh?"

"_... My mind... the office... he destroyed the rest of it... what I didn't... most of it's gone now... he ruined it so much that some of it disappeared..._" Dark hung his head, speaking in a soft voice. "_... He pulled out connections... and shattered the parts that hold my emotions... he broke the one that filters it..._"

"He did what..?" Mephiles was sure this wasn't rambling, because he knew that the rules of the mind were very different than reality.

"_... I can't help being more extreme now... he broke the filters... that computer... it was the storage for that... he destroyed it... pulled the wires... snapped the hard drive casings... melted the cards... purged a lot of it's data... I feel everything at the same time now..._" Dark looked up, unnerved. "_... I didn't want to hurt her... she startled me when she bit me... That scares me, and I get mad at myself for being scared... I'm upset that I couldn't keep myself in check and I hurt someone..._"

"No, Dark... It's kinda my fault Krystal got hurt, too..." Mephiles sighed softly. "I tried to force you to tell me what happened, and you reacted in what made sense to you: You felt threatened, and you were going to fight back. It was my fault for trying to make you, and even more so that I was going to try and look in your mind. I shouldn't have tried to force you when you said that you didn't want to tell me right now..."

"_... But you said that you couldn't help me if I didn't tell..._"

"What I _should_ have done was just let you tell me when you were ready." Mephiles said, shaking his head. "But I just wanted to know what was wrong and what I could do about it. If anything could set you off without warning, I needed to know what to avoid to not let it happen..."

"_... I told you that you wouldn't like hearing it..._" Dark said, shifting his eyes down at his cat, who was laying beside him between him and Mephiles, tail tucked close as well as paws and feet, taking up as little room as possible. "_... It's even worse if you got to _see_ it happen... every wire he could grab, he tore out of walls and electronics... he set fire to a great number of things with a snap of his fingers... the notebook... he... he set it on fire... burned it to ash..._"

"He... Your _notebook?_" Mephiles' eyes went round. "Not-not the one that you used for keeping track of thoughts?"

Dark nodded slowly.

"B-but, I thought you left it in _my _brain!"

"_... It moved back to mine when I left your's... it's my figment... it belongs in my mind..._" Dark clenched his teeth.

"How did he even do any of th-that before you could stop him?" Mephiles said in shock.

"_... I was too busy trying to put the fire out while he did the rest..._" Dark closed his eyes. "_... I dunno how much I saved... but when he was gone... I put what I could on a memory card... my brain has a new split because of him... Logic. Logic is still me, but he's busy right now trying to restore everything. There's a new notebook... a laptop. He has it, and he's made backups of what was left... he's in another part of the brain... trying to stay undetected by Iblis... he's trying to fix what was lost..._"

"What was lost?"

"_Thought processing patterns... barriers... pathways... filters... he was gone before Logic could save the hard drives..._" Dark closed his eyes. "_He didn't damage the memory... the circuits escaped most damage... but he tampered with too much... it'll take a long time to rebuild..._"

"How could he do that to you?" Mephiles whispered. "You're his brother..."

Dark shook his head.

"_... I'm not. I'm made up of what he isn't. A cheap copy... a weak imitation..._"

"You're not weak, Dark..."

"_If that's true... then why am I like this? Why can't I ever win?_"

For that, Mephiles couldn't answer. He could never even begin to know why Dark always got the short end of the stick, while he himself was the one that got all the luck...

* * *

Dark was holding his notebook in his hand tightly, trying to make sure he didn't leave it out of his sight. If anything, he _had _to make sure that this thing was the one thing that was unharmed.

Shattered glass, wood splinters, shreds of paper and broken bits of plastic littered the ground at his feet. He cautiously stepped around it all, trying not to grind what was left into the carpet.

"... _Iblis..._" Dark said slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on the paperweight his doppelganger had in his hand. "_... I'm only going to ask you once... Put. It. Down. Now._"

"_Too bad I didn't hear you the first time..._" Iblis smirked, examine the object. "_Hmm... clear... diamond cut... red... reminds me of a certain Emerald that you like so much..._" Iblis balanced it on the back of his hand, letting it sway a bit to Dark's horror.

"_Be careful with that! It's glass and it will break if you drop it!_" Dark shouted.

"_If it breaks... it breaks. So what? You can make up another one can't you?_"

"_If that breaks, then whatever part of my sanity made that will too!_" Dark blurted out before he could stop himself. He gasped and clapped his hands (as well as the notebook) over his mouth, folding his ears back in fear.

"_You don't say..?_" Iblis said in mock surprise. "_Well now, I guess I should-Oh dear... oops..._" He said boredly as he purposely let it fall, the thick piece of glass cracking and chipping a few pieces off as it hit the carpeted ground, Dark giving a frantic screech as he dove after it, futilely trying to piece the thing back together. "_... Well, I suppose I should have been more careful, eh Dark?_"

Dark was shaking, having now given up on trying to fix it, and knowing that it was beyond repair the moment it cracked.

"_... I... hate... you..._" Dark whispered in a shuddering voice, turning his head over his shoulder to give Iblis a hurt and scared look. He swallowed and said a bit more loudly to be heard. "_... Y-you're not... you aren't... what happened to you? Have you forgotten what was... how we got along? Th-this is _wrong!_ That's not why you were created! Why _I _was created! Us! We were Solaris, or at least an attempt to recreate it! We were made so that we could help!_"

Iblis laughed harshly.

"_Oh, you're one to speak, _Dark the Demon!" He bared his teeth in another smirk as Dark shuddered and sat down to inch away backwards. "_If you want to help so much, then why call yourself such a misleading name?_"

"_W-well, I... th-there's a p-perfectly good reason f-for that..._" Dark stammered meekly, cursing to himself that his tail had subconsciously curled around his leg out of a fear instinct. "_I had an error in one of m-my-_"

"_Because you're a liar, a puppeteer and a monster, that's why._" Iblis cut across him as if he hadn't been speaking at all. "_You lie to and manipulate people to get what you want and _only _what you want. You've never helped a soul other than yourself until now, and that was because you realized that if you didn't, _you _were going to suffer consequences. You were merely saving your own skin. If that hedgehog was drowning, and you knew you couldn't be hurt by that... I'm very certain that you'd just turn heel and walk away. You'd abandon him once you realize that you've leeched all you can from him..._"

"_Th-that's not true. I'd st-still help..._"

"_And why do you say that?_"

"_B-because he's helped me..._"

"_So you'd only help because you have already received a benefit?_"

"_Th-that's not what I s-said..._" Dark stuttered, realizing to his horror that Iblis was trying to twist his words to make his point.

"_But you said that you'd help him because he helped you. If he hadn't, then it seems like you'd rather not concern yourself. You only seek benefits and rewards regardless if you deserve them... you know what you are?_"

"_Iblis... s-stop it._"

"_I'll tell you what you are..._"

"_P-please... stop it..._"

"_You're a parasite, Dark._" Iblis sneered at him, chuckling a little. "_You found yourself a host, and you know that you won't survive if your little lifeline is gone. A parasite. A tick. A flea. A mite. An insignificant speck in a vast world that doesn't know nor care that you even live or die. If you die, no impact is made, because no one cares..._"

"_St-stop it... th-that's not t-true..._" Dark moaned, seizing his ears and pulling them down to close them and muffle the sound. It wasn't working.

"_Keep telling yourself that, little flea. Shame that no one is here to assure you... assuming someone actually cares..._" Iblis snickered, circling around Dark slowly, as if he was merely taking an evening walk. "_You controlled a little hedgehog's mind... reminds me of a certain worm that can control a grasshopper if they infect them... can make the poor host try and drown themselves while they just look out for themselves... sound familiar?_"

"SHUT UP!" Dark roared, lunging after Iblis, only to get a smack in the face that had enough force to make him stumble to the side and lose his footing.

Iblis folded his arms as he stood over Dark, who had the misfortune of landing on his shoulder that had been dislocated earlier that month. A silent cry of pain as he pulled his hand over to his shoulder, clenching his fingered tightly in response.

"_Oh, does the little tick need his hedgehog to make him better?_" Iblis mocked a concerned coo. "_Yeah, I know aaaaaalllllll about how you've been letting that rodent take care of every little sore spot you get..._"

"_He's a hedgehog! A mammal! _Not_ a rodent!_" Dark snapped, narrowing his eyes as he forced himself up into a sitting position.

"_Real hedgehogs are small. He's a rodent to me. A spiky rat. With a flea. A weak, cowardly little flea._" Iblis smirked, then trailing his eyes to where Dark had been before he had jumped forward. The smirk deepened as Dark's eyes grew wide, his mouth half open in shock and horror.

Dark had left his notebook out of his own reach.

There was a split second meet of the eyes before Dark jumped up and dove for it, his hands closing around air as Iblis reached over and picked it up by the spine.

"_Well now, this seems to be a very good condition... it looks like you forgot to tear this book up..._" Iblis teased cruelly as Dark lifted his head off the ground.

Dark's face paled and he looked like the idea of what was going on right now was making him sick enough to vomit. His eyes jumped ceaselessly between Iblis and the notebook in his hand, Dark's face and body was damp with sweat as he tried to think of a way to persuade Iblis to give him the book back.

"_Oh... th-that old thing..? I-it's just a plain old notebook... wouldn't really matter..._"

"_Liar."_

Dark felt a jump in his heartbeat. His pupils widened to a rounder shape.

"_Iblis... p-please... leave that alone... I n-need that..._"

"_What's this control, then? It's a simple notebook, so maybe it's your thoughts?_" Iblis snapped his fingers and a flame struck up on his index finger. "_But you said it was also unimportant. Y'know, what?_" Iblis gasped in a fake moment of realization. "_I know! You have too much trash around here anyway. You should really get rid of it and all. Better yet... let me help you... here's the first thing to go..."_

He shook his hand in the air for a moment and made the flame bigger before pressing his hand to the notebook, which earned an earsplitting shriek of terror from Dark, who shoved himself up and tried to grab the notebook back, but Iblis held it just out of his reach as he kept Dark an arms length away.

"_Oh. I-I'm sorry._" Iblis faked an appalled look. "_I had no _idea _that this was so important to you. You should have been more clear. My bad... here..._" Iblis tossed the burning book a few feet away, Dark scrambling after it. "_Try and save as much as you can. Paper burns fairly easily and fast!_"

Dark tried to stamp the flames out with his foot, and realized that one foot wasn't enough. He dropped to the ground on his knees and tried to smack his hands into the flames to try and smother them. In his panic, he tried to blow on them to put them out, and to his horror the pages were burning faster.

"_No! My notes! My thoughts! Stop it! I _need_ them! Put them out! Stop it, Iblis! _Please!" Dark howled pleadingly. He looked up and saw that Iblis was now making fast work of destroying the desktop computer, melting open the side casing and tearing out handfuls of wires and circuit boards. Dark clutched his head as he felt and heard thoughts and brain pathways stray and split, scurry and slam into each other, creating collisions of what should not be. In other words, something was happening, and it was hurting him."_No! _Stop!_ That's my brain! My memories and everything about me is in there!_"

"_Really, now... well then..._" Iblis bared his teeth in a grin and snapped one of the cards in the brainbox and tearing out the hard drive and tossing it to Dark, who jumped back as it slid on the floor to his feet. "_Good luck trying to restore that!_"

Dark was shaking again, and he hesitantly shifted his eyes back to his notebook he had forgotten about. It was no longer there, and a smoldering pile of ash in the shape of a rectangle was in it's place. Trembling hands ran over it, smudging the carpet and his fingers with soot. He held his fingers up in shock, not quite registering in his brain what had happened yet completely.

He looked up to see that the walls and most of the office was gone, the world around him dark and empty, the only light source was where he was all. Iblis was gone now. He was all alone.

His mind now violated and damaged, he stayed in a silent stupor quite a bit of time, keeping his head low as he stared at the remnants of the notebook, running his fingers through it again and pulling out a spiral spring shaped object. The spine. The binding...

The book even had more of a spine than him. He just watched helplessly as his brain was destroyed, too afraid to stand up and fight...

"_He's wrong about you, y'know..._" He heard an identical voice to his own. He jumped and pulled back, still worried about being alone.

He looked around, trying to find the owner of the voice.

"_I'm right here... just look behind you..._"

Dark's eyes went wide and he did, squeaking and scooting back quickly.

Unless he was mistaken (which was possible now, given his mind's state), he was staring at an exact clone of himself with just a slight difference: He had glasses.

"_... Wh-who..?_" Dark mumbled, still too shocked from everything to speak.

"_I'm new here. Logic, you can call me. I guess I'm here to help you... after all, you're me._"

Dark was confused.

The now named Logic was holding a laptop, a notebook PC in fact, under an arm.

"_You need someone to back up what's left and usable on the drive there, and try and restore everything. I can do that..._"

"_But... who are you..?_" Dark said slowly, still lost on this.

"_Logic. I was just made. Perhaps your subconscious planned ahead and made me for you. By the state of things here, you need help._"

"_... I-I can't remember if I do... or what happened..._" Dark said truthfully in a small voice.

Logic gave him a look of pity, letting his ears sink a bit. He fixed his glasses and held his free hand out, offering for Dark to take it so he could help him up.

"_I suppose that there's going to be some damage that is hard to restore, but I will be sure to start right away on getting that..._" He nodded to the hard drive. "_Up and running again, so that your __recovery can be started. Your memories, no matter how terrible the be, are important in what shapes you._"

"_... How do you do that..?_" Dark stared at the hand that was being held out to him.

"_I'm sure I can make something work with my laptop..._"

"_H-how will I know it worked..?_"

"_I will fade back into your subconscious, where I belong..._"

"_You... You'll die..?_" Dark pulled back a bit in surprise.

"_No. Better. I'll be waiting for when you need me. But if I'm personified right now, you are in dire need. Iblis has tampered and violated your brain's inner workings and pathways..._"

"_Why..? Why did he do that..?_"

Logic reached forward further and grabbed his wrist to pull him to his feet instead of waiting. He waited before giving an honest answer.

"_It's not logical. I cannot give you a proper answer for that. I'm deeply sorry, Dark..._" He shook his head before locking his gaze with him. "_Do you remember what happened to you before you ended up here, in your mind?_"

Dark shook his head slowly.

"_You were in the hospital, being treated for injuries Iblis caused. Mephiles was blamed, and you attempted to relay a message you saw to Shadow, only to receive full 'punishment' from Iblis, who reacted violently for you revealing his presence._"

"_Did... Did I do something bad, then..?_" Dark said meekly. He was still trying to sort out the truth.

"_No, Dark..._" Logic assured, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "_You did what you were supposed to do. You did nothing wrong..._"

"_Then why did he do this me..?_"

"_Again, I cannot answer. It's not logical..._" Logic shook his head before resting a hand on Dark's shoulder. "_Now, please, let me begin on the restoration. All I need you to do is wake up, and my laptop will be connected. It may take a couple hours for you to get to the connection point, but the sooner you start, the better for the both of us..._"

Dark nodded slowly again.

"_Uh, huh..._"

* * *

That, of course, was what had happened earlier in the week, when Dark had been attacked. The thought of his notebook meeting a terrible fate such as that made Mephiles' skin crawl.

Mephiles' pulled his hand away slowly, unsure of what he should do now.

"_Told you that you didn't want to know..._" Dark muttered softly, pulling himself to the farthest end of the couch to drape himself over the arm of it. "_It's just too much... the office is gone... the notebook is gone... everything is gone..._"

"But Logic is working on fixing it, right?" Mephiles added hopefully.

"_It's been a week..._"

"But you _are _improving!" Mephiles reasoned. "You're speaking with more sense and you know what happened now. That's good! That means that the restoration is working!"

Dark looked at him with a sad expression, then set his head back down to complete his depressed appearance.

"_That doesn't change that it happened. My notebook is gone. I have no way to sort my thoughts anymore. My computer was fried. My brain was violated. Logic can restore it... but he can never erase what happened and start over..._"

"Maybe not... some things never fade... but I can try and help anyway I can."

Dark lifted his head up again to look over his shoulder at him and paused before saying: "_Square cantaloupe. Get me one. I want to see how much you'll go out of your way to make me feel better. It's hard to find one, but if you do, then you have tried hard enough..._"

"Can it wait until we stop him?" Mephiles asked with a surprised look. "Now is not the time to go looking for one. You have a cat now, and even Shadow agreed that you can keep him. But I promise, when I can, I'll find you a square cantaloupe. Alright?"

Dark moved his hand over to Tape and gently stroked his head before nodding slowly.

* * *

Poor Dark... he knows nothing of what Iblis is about to do! OAO


	34. Iblis Makes His Move

This took longer than I wanted it to. ^^;  


* * *

Mephiles woke up that night feeling a sensation of dread and fear, wondering briefly if he had had a night terror before realizing that those were not _his _feelings. Sitting up on the couch and looking to the floor, he saw that Dark was sitting up, slumped a bit, leaning his weight forward, eyes half closed and mouth half open as if he was half asleep.

"... Dark? You still up..?" Mephiles whispered, cautious not to speak too loudly, so he didn't startle Dark.

Dark didn't say anything. Or rather... he didn't say anything to Mephiles. He mumbled with words that were hard to heard at his soft tone as he surveyed the room in no real meaningful way.

Mephiles raised his eyebrows in confusion, and leaned over from the couch to look at Dark, who's eyes were glassy and not particularly focused. Dark's ears shifted and folded back slowly, accompanying it with a soft whimper, pushing himself back as if to want to get away from something.

_He's not even awake... _Mephiles realized, seeing that Dark wasn't even seeing the hand Mephiles waved in front of his eyes quickly. He pulled back to the couch. _Oh, dear... what if this is because of that injury or whatever happened when he fell? Or because of what Iblis did to him? Should I get someone? Or is he just going to settle down, and this be nothing?_ _Forget it... I'm getting Rouge or Shadow... this might be serious..._

In at least a minute, Mephiles was at the bedroom door, and was carefully trying to knock on it loud enough to wake them, but not so loud that it might frighten Dark from it being a sudden loud sound, taking into consideration that Dark's logical part of his mind might not be in control at the moment. He didn't know what Dark was seeing or thinking, so anything he did could worsen this problem. All he knew was that Dark was feeling some sort of negative extreme emotion that was upsetting the both of them.

"... I think something's wrong with Dark..." He told them in a low voice as he pointed over to the shadow, who was now attempting to get to his feet, but wobbled and stumbled too much that he immediately had to grab the couch to catch himself from toppling. "... I tried talking to him, but he didn't seem to see me. He's feeling pretty scared, too... What's wrong with him?"

"He looks pretty dazed..." Shadow said, looking past Mephiles to look at Dark. "Do you know if he bumped his head or something?"

"No... He was like this when I woke up." Mephiles shook his head. "What's even weirder is that it's like he's still asleep too... Should we let Dr. Thizon know? Maybe this has to do with his head injury? It's unusual..."

Dark suddenly clutched his head and collapsed, scrunching his face up in pain as he slid to the floor, surprising everyone as Mephiles yelped. Mephiles was the first one to him.

"Oh, geeze... he's holding the side that isn't cracked." He told them. "That must mean it's a migraine... But I still don't know why he was acting like that... Huh?" Mephiles arched his eyebrows in confusion before looking up at Shadow and Rouge again. "He's still asleep. This is really weird..."

Mephiles gave him a careful shake to try and rouse him, but it wasn't working too well. Finally after a couple more minutes, to Mephiles' relief, he saw Dark's eyes focus a little as he let go of his head with one hand and raised it slowly to grasp Mephiles' arm. Then he winced and brought his other hand to his stomach and gripped it, curling inward slightly.

"Dark, you okay?" Mephiles said with a concerned look.

Shake of the head.

"Do you feel like you might be sick?" Mephiles guessed from the vibe he was getting.

Pause and a slow nod with a weak groan. Dark's body was shaking, perhaps from the ill feeling in his stomach.

A few minutes later, after Dark had thrown up in a trash can, his face red with embarrassment as he timidly sipped from a cup of cool water he had been given to help bring down the low fever he had developed, his eyes were beginning to lose their glassy stare. He shied to one end of the couch and kept his eyes low to avoid staring anyone in the eyes, obviously humiliated at having thrown up in front of a group of people, even more so in their living room, and more specifically in a wastebasket that was generally used to hold scrapped paper.

"Do you remember anything that just happened?" Mephiles asked him, earning just as slow shake of the head. Dark's ears were droopy, and he looked quite fatigued, as if this had disturbed his sleep cycle greatly. He kept staring at the cup as Mephiles tried to explain what happened. "I dunno what was going on, but you kinda scared me there..."

As Mephiles, with help of his friends, explained the event that happened hardly ten minutes ago, Dark felt like he wanted to crawl under a rock. It made him uncomfortable to know that he had been so pathetic looking; whimpering, unable to stand up properly, backing away from nothing, and after he finally _did _ wake up, it wasn't long before he had thrown up, and moreover right where he was watched.

At that thought, his face deepened a darker red, and that he been mistaken for a fever increase, which resulted in him swatting Mephiles' hand away when the hedgehog attempted to test for a fever.

"Maybe we oughtta have Dr. Thizon check you out again, just to be sure that this isn't related to your head injury..." Mephiles gestured to the bandaged head wound.

"_... I was sleepwalking..._" Dark finally said in as soft, raspy voice, almost too quiet to be heard as he shook his head and took another sip of water.

"But you weren't walking around. Well, not much... you were mostly sitting up, and mumbling..." Mephiles said, looking very confused.

"_... Don't have to be walking to be a somnambulist..._" Dark muttered, sinking a bit. "_... Some just sit up and rub their eyes..._"

"You were trying to talk too..."

"_... Somniloquy... sleeptalking... any utterances during the absence of self awareness... If I was asleep and mumbling, then I was sleeptalking..._" Dark said while folding his ears down in embarrassment. "_... Can we not go into this any further... I wish to forget it... I have a headache..._"

"Maybe we should call him then... he said if your head started to hurt, it might be a sign that we missed something..."

"_... It's a migraine... I'm quite sure of it..._" Dark frowned, putting the empty cup down. "_... Headaches are common after bouts of somnambulism... all signs point to that..._"

"But you threw up... that could be because of the head injury..."

"_... Or it's because I am feeling unwell..._"

"Because you hit your head..."

"_Why would it take all week for the symptom such as that to appear if I have already been checked out?_"

"Please Dark, I'll feel much better having a professional opinion on that..." Mephiles pleaded. "I know you're smart... but you might be overlooking something..."

"Mephiles brings up a good point..." Shadow said, Dark snapping his head to look at him, settling a frown on his face even more when he looked at the hybrid hedgehog. "You not might even be aware that your brain is-"

"_Oh, SHUT UP!_" Dark snapped at him, suddenly getting a little hostile. "You _can just stay out of this!_"

Shadow blinked in mild surprise.

"I was trying to be considerate with you..." He pulled his ears back a fraction.

Dark suddenly rounded on Mephiles, who flinched from being startled.

"_Did you tell him!?_" Dark accused, glaring deeply at him. Mephiles shook his head quickly, knowing that Dark meant that he thought Mephiles told Shadow about what he had learned that day, and Mephiles, truthfully, had yet to speak of it to anyone other than Dark. Dark bared his teeth. "_Liar! I know you _must _have said something! You can't keep a secret from _any_one!_"

"Dark, I didn't say anything." Mephiles shook his head and held his hands up as if to shield himself. "I swear I didn't... please calm down. You shouldn't be getting so worked up..."

Dark was panting like he normally did when he was angry. His messy fur was on end, and he was shivering from the adrenaline rush as he heaved air through his teeth with each deep inhale and exhale. He kept glaring at Shadow, who still had yet to know what was really going on.

"Maybe we _should _get Thizon if he's being this irritable..." Shadow suggested with a shrug as Mephiles gave him an apprehensive look, knowing that Shadow talking right now was possibly one of the worst things to happen when Dark was on edge. "Irritability can be a sign that something is wrong with-"

"Shadow... please... stop talking right now..." Mephiles pleaded, eying Dark anxiously, who had a shift behind the eyes as Shadow unknowingly referred to a possible brain malfunction. "If he insists that he's alright... then maybe we should let it be..."

"I'm just saying-_Whoa!_" Shadow cut himself off with a shout of surprise as Dark snapped and lunged at him with a snarl, Shadow jumping back just in time, making Dark miss and land flat on the floor on his front. "He just _jumped_ me!" Shadow pointed at Dark furiously as Dark lifted his head off the ground, narrowed his eyes and growled.

"Because you were suggesting that something was wrong with his head!" Mephiles shouted. "It doesn't matter what context it was in, Dark can't tell the difference right now because he has no filter for it! You were _offending_ him!"

Dark made an upset face and picked himself up off the floor enough to flop down on his side with his back to them, curling up and folding his arms.

"There _is _something wrong with his head!" Shadow snapped, pointing at Dark, who flinched. "He makes no sense! First he wanted to kill you, then he says he needs your help! Then he claims you were friends before, but he still hurt you! Then apparently he erased his own mind, and that's why he's like this, and you just openly believed it!"

"Because I have proof! It all fits! It's all in my memories too!"

"How can you be sure that he didn't plant them there? Maybe he's trying to use you!"

"I think I would know if he was or not!"

"No, you wouldn't! You don't get it! You always trust what you shouldn't! You're just too _stupid_ to know any better!"

Mephiles didn't say anything. He just stared as if a car was about to hit him and all he could do was stare into the headlights. Then he looked quite hurt from that statement, as if something dug right into him, and he inhaled sharply before shoving past him and hurrying out the door, slamming it.

Dark was sitting on the couch armrest with his legs crossed like a kindergartner, learning forward with interest and a surprised look on his face.

"_... Oh... You've really done it now..._" He stated quite obviously. "_... You oughtta go after him before he gets in trouble... assuming he'll listen to you, that is..._"

"Oh, _you_ stay out of this!"

Dark's ears flipped down as Shadow headed after Mephiles, who hadn't really left the yard, and was sitting at the base of the tree trunk, arms folded, ears held back and frowning. He shivered a bit, perhaps from the cold air from the night.

"Are you going to come back in, or are you just going to freeze your tail off out here?" Shadow shook his head.

Mephiles responded by pulling his tail closer to himself to keep it from freezing. He didn't look at Shadow.

"Okay, I admit I might have been a bit out of line-"

"A bit?!" Mephiles snapped his head to look at him and glared. "If you think that that was just a teensy bit over the line, you, my friend, are sadly mistaken!" Mephiles huffed and folded his arms. "It's one thing for Dark to call me stupid because that's just how he is... it's a completely different thing when _you _do it, because you're not like him!"

"Oh, so _now _I'm different than him?" Shadow added in an attempt to add a bit of humor to this growingly serious situation.

Mephiles cursed and said: "Shadow! You know very well what I mean!"

"Look, I don't know what just happened, but he started it by trying to jump at me." Shadow tried to reason.

"He only did that because he was misunderstanding what you were trying to get at. If you had just shut up when I suggested it, maybe he would've left you alone."

"Oh, so now it's _my_ fault?"

"Yeah, believe it or not, 'Mr. Perfect'!" Mephiles countered.

"Mr. What?"

"You're the Ultimate Lifeform, aren't you? You're maxed out on every attribute, aren't you? You don't think you've ever made a mistake!"

"Why do you even care about him if he's caused you to die at more than once already?!"

"Because if I don't, who will?!"

Shadow didn't answer to that, so he continued.

"Look, put yourself in his shoes..."

"He doesn't have-"

"Figure of speech, Shadow!" Mephiles said sharply. "He came to me for help. I'm going to help. And you, well, you _promised _that you weren't going to fight with him. All I've seen you do is agitate him. That's practically the same..."

"He doesn't have to respond..."

"He can't help it! He doesn't know how _not _to!"

"Can't you teach him, then?"

"What makes you think _I_ can teach him brain processes?!"

"Why doesn't he have them to begin with?!"

"Y'know what? _You _ask him! I'm tired of having to explain everything to everyone!" Mephiles shouted while pointing at the door to indicate the current location of the subject in question. "The both of you keep wanting to pull me in two opposite directions, and neither of you are trying to get along with each other and share me!"

"Then why are you just yelling at me?!"

"Because it's not going to do us _any _good if I yell at him because he won't understand what I'll be trying to say right now! Iblis really-!" Mephiles clapped his hands over his mouth, realizing he almost let slip what Dark didn't want him to tell Shadow.

"What?"

"No! I'm not going to say it! I'm not going to say anything!" Mephiles shook his head quickly. "I know too much! Too many things! Secrets that aren't mine to say! Stop asking me!"

"Well, things can't get any worse than they already are, right?" Shadow offered, a bit confused at what Mephiles was getting at.

Almost as if God decided to totally screw with them, this already being a freezing cold night and all... a low rumble was heard in the sky and something wet splashed on Mephiles' ear, both hedgehogs looking up to receive a faceful of rain, getting the both of the soaked in mere seconds.

"Oh... _perfect... _I hate rain..." Mephiles huffed, folding his arms again and hunching his shoulders.

"Now you _have _to come back inside..." Shadow said, pulling off his gloves and squeezing the water out and leaving them off so he could dry them later. "Either that, or you'll get either pneumonia or hypothermia..."

"I don't feel like moving..."

"Then that leaves me no choice..."

"What are you going to do..?"

Half a minute later, Shadow was dragging Mephiles through the doorway, having scruffed him and rendering him virtually helpless as the hedgehog shouted: "H-hey!" in surprise.

Both hedgehogs were wet from the sudden rain, and Mephiles sneezed a few times from having a cold nose. After getting handed a couple towels to dry their fur off, Shadow and Mephiles did so, Mephiles taking extra time to make his crystals shine a bit more.

"You're too much of a neat freak, you know that, right?"

"Shadow, a hedgehog's health is reflected through his appearance... I'll clean myself however much I want."

"Well, I think you're taking too long..."

"Why so?"

"Because Dark just took the couch..."

Mephiles look over at Dark, and saw that he did indeed take the couch. What made matters worse for Mephiles was that Dark was already sound asleep and had Tape in a one armed hug while sleeping on his side, the other arm hanging over the edge of the couch, and a hint of a small smile visible. In other words, Mephiles would feel bad if he shoved him off the couch.

And worse... Dark had his pillow.

"Th-that... that's _my _pillow..." Mephiles said quietly.

"Hey, he's your problem, not mine."

* * *

After about a couple hours later, Mephiles was still awake, and was attempting to sleep while on the floor where Dark had been several hours ago. Part of the reason was because he didn't have his pillow, and the rest was because he was troubled about Dark from that little episode he had.

_I didn't know he was a... whatever you call a sleep walker... _Mephiles pondered. _I've seen him asleep a lot of times before now, and this is the first time I've seen it. What if I'm right, and that this has to do with hitting his head? He says that it's not important, but what if that's because he doesn't want help with that? I can understand him being reluctant, since to him, that's showing weakness... but he can't just shove things off like that... _

Mephiles scratched behind his ear.

_And what was all that about that woke me up to begin with? He was definitely scared, but why? As far as I know, we're in a safe zone right now, and he shouldn't be worrying... unless, of course... well, he was still being traumatized by the hospital incident. It's not even a week later, and I can't expect him to be over it... especially after what Iblis did to his mind... _

Mephiles sighed and rolled over to face away from Dark.

_I don't doubt that he's depressed, but what can I do for that? I can only heal visible wounds, and only minor ones at that... how do I fix a wound I can't even see, or doesn't physically exist for that matter? _

Mephiles looked over his shoulder to glance back at Dark again for a moment.

_Well, he does seem to be a bit better when he has Tape near him... it's almost like that kitten knows how important he is to Dark, being a comfort thing and all... it's also helping Dark by letting him get to be something important, even if it's just a little cat. And this cat likes him unconditionally... it must be different for him to meet something that he doesn't have to worry about being hated on sight. I'm his friend, yeah... but I used to be afraid of him... Tape is much smaller than any of us, and he's not scared of him at all... it's like a fresh start... and maybe Shadow will be more lenient when he sees that Dark actually has a nice side... even if it's a little underdeveloped... Dark just needs a chance to use it... _

He pulled pillow that was not his at all (Dark still having full custody of Mephiles', since Mephiles hadn't bothered to try and take it back.) over his head to try and block out the green cable box light from his eyes, and attempted to fall asleep now, but having a bit of trouble since his sensitive hearing was picking up each and everyone's breath and/or snore ranging from Shadow, to a certain sharp toothed Chao with a spiky ball over his head, who was sleeping just inches from Mephiles' ears.

_This is why I like to try and be the first one asleep..._ He thought to himself with with a bit of a twitch to his eyes.

* * *

It had been at at least a couple of weeks now by this point. Sadly, as we all know, this time of little activity from Iblis can't last forever...

He waited until the timing was right to make his next move. That timing couldn't have been any worse for Dark, who had been showing good signs of recovery, and had nearly all his bruises healed, and was reduced to just one set of bandages left, that one being his stomach wound, which was slated for being completely healed in the next couple of days.

It was a weekday... a Wednesday, to be spot on. The middle of the freaking week. And worse yet, Shadow and Rouge were absolutely required to be at work that day, since the time jump for a month had used up a good portion of their overtime vacation days, and they had to start working to get them back.

But, no matter how much you lock every door and window and follow the buddy system... it doesn't help when the assailant is merely an element that cannot be stopped if it doesn't want to...

You get the point. This is bad, alright? Y'all with me? Good. Here we go then...

Neither of them could be sure how he got in (I'm thinking air vent, or something that he can just slip through in his base form or something...), but Mephiles and Dark knew that they were definitely in one of the worst situations imaginable, since there was no Shadow or Rouge there to help even the odds.

"_Very nice little house you have here... smoke detectors... immediate security response for if something is ablaze... so a fire is out of the question if I want to be sure I never see your faces again..._" Iblis said casually as Dark froze and Mephiles yelled in surprise and dropped the handful of plates he had been putting away, the bottom ones breaking and sending ceramic pieces across the floor as the top ones avoided most damaged by letting the bottom ones take it all. "_You definitely seem to be doing much better Dark... found a family to take you in like a stray dog? How long do you think before you screw up and get thrown out? Hmm?_"

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Mephiles shouted, trying to ignore every fight-or-flight instinct that was telling him to turn tail and run as far as he could. "Don't you think you've hurt him enough!?"

"_Hmmmm... Naw... I think he still has a bit more in him left... he's still standing, isn't he?_" Iblis bared his teeth a little in a smirk as he folded his arms, Dark trembling as he slid to the ground and stared up at him, bristling his fur and quills. "_Annnnnnnd... there it goes... good while it lasted... what was that... five... ten seconds? Seven tops, I'd say... what's that like... a record now?_"

"Dark! Get up!" Mephiles took a couple steps to get to him and tried to pull him to his feet. "Don't get down like that! That's just showing him that you think you're inferior! That's how he's getting in your head! Augh, _c'mon!_" Dark kept letting himself slide to the ground, making no effort in standing on his feet. "Don't let him do what he always does to you!"

"_Letting a rat be your coach? Not very alpha male, if I say so..._"

Mephiles flinched.

"Hey, I'm a hedgehog! I'm not a rat, nor any kind of rodent for that matter!"

"_You're a pest, that's what you are. You do know what happens to pests, right?_"

Mephiles held his ears back while he stopped what he was doing and stood there, holding Dark's wrists like he had when he was trying to get him to his feet.

"_They get exterminated when they're in a house..._" Iblis flexed the fingers in one had, which Mephiles could hear the knuckles pop from the hand being warmed up before whatever Iblis had in mind. The hedgehog cringed. "_Shame that you're fire proof like Dark... the worse that I can do to you that way is either singe all your fur off so that you look like a naked mole rat, or lock you in a room where something is burning, and let you die from the inhalation of the smoke... one way is embarrassing to say the least, and the other will take far to long for my enjoyment..._" Iblis pulled blue Emerald from his quills, enjoying the pure shock and horror Dark and Mephiles showed him. "_Surprised? I just tired of you collecting them all... you take too long..._"

"Oh crud... oh crud... oh dang... oh-" Mephiles dissolved into a series of various exclamations from "Oh Chaos!" to a grunt or two that Dark would have to guess was in Hedgehog. Mephiles let go of Dark's wrists and walked back slowly a few steps. "I-I-I don't know where the rest are r-right now... Sh-shadow and Rouge hid th-them I th-think... s-so it's no g-good trying to make me t-tell... I d-don't know where th-they are..."

"_Pathetic attempt at negotiating, but gutsy for you, to say the least..._" Iblis rolled his eyes. "_I actually had something better in mind..._"

"Wh-what..?"

Almost as if this was the worst timing ever, Dark squeaked when he felt his cat nudge him with his head, Dark reacting quickly by shoving Tape behind him to trying and hide him.

"_Oh, now what's this?_" Iblis said in mock surprise, raising an eyebrow and grinning when the kitten mewed and poked his head from behind Dark, trying to make heads or tails of the situation. "_Oh, how cute... Dark has a little pet... I know _just _what I have in mind now!_"

"No!" Mephiles jumped in front of Dark with his arms out to make himself as much of a barrier as possible, body also ready to jump if it needed to. "You will not take another innocent living creature! Ever!"

"_Another..? Oh, right... that... that was _your _family, wasn't it?_" Iblis said, faking the confusion to mock him. "_Your mother, brother and sister... am I right? Bet you feel pretty bad knowing that not only did you leave them behind, but you forgot about them for a long time, and-_"

Mephiles interrupted him by slamming him against the wall, one arm pressing him to it, the other engulfed in a purple aura, fingers held in a clawing position.

"You will shut up about that now! You have no right, _no right_, to even breathe about them!" Mephiles was furious. "I might not be able to fight well, but I can do some pretty good damage if you try me!"

"_You did know what your brother had, right? Just curious..._" Iblis ignored the threat with a smirk. "_Between you and your siblings, he was the only one with Wobbly Hedgehog Syndrome... you do know what that is, don't you? Being a hedgehog, and all..._"

"I said shut up!"

"_It's a very common disease among hedgehogs, mostly in those in captivity... can be gradual or rapid on onset... you'll never know with him now..._" Iblis continued ignoring him. "_Did he ever seem a bit shaky to you? Any trouble walking right?_"

"I'm not going to tell you again!"

"_He already had a shorter lifespan then you... you knew about it, didn't you? You knew something was wrong with him, that he was sick... and you still bullied him... seems a bit out of character for you now, doesn't it? Is that why you're being so protective of Dark? Because you feel the need to make up for that?_"

Dark was watching with wide eyes, somewhat shocked by this. He couldn't recall ever learning about Mephiles any farther than the basics, so he completely ignored the parts as far as Mephiles before they both met.

Mephiles had tears standing in his eyes as if to confirm this, and he growled, clenching his hands into a fist and attempting to take a swing at Iblis, only to find to his shock that it got swatted away when Iblis freed one one his arms.

"_Forget it kid, I have an Emerald right now... you can't keep me pinned without you having one..._" He laughed before tossing the Emerald to his other hand and using the now free one to catch Mephiles by the throat and slam him to the ground to lean his weight into doing so to restrict breathing. "_Now Dark... if you don't want to see the life choked out of him right now, you will do what I tell you to... got it?_"

Reluctantly, Dark nodded, not sure of what he would be agreeing to.

"_Give me your cat... then tell Shadow and that bat that they are to bring the remaining Emeralds to the tree this little rat buried his family's remains at, and you can have this cat back... not strings attached, and the cat will not be harmed... unless you disagree..._"

"_A-are you going to let Mephy go too?_" Dark said slowly, grabbing his cat and holding him close. "_Is Mephy going to be left alone if I say 'yes'?_"

"_For the time being..._"

Dark looked at Mephiles anxiously, the hedgehog gasping and panting to try and breath, already starting to not look good.

Dark bit his lip and gave a barely noticeable nod, and watched Mephiles get let go, who was now sitting up, holding his throat and coughing hoarsely as Iblis stepped over to where Dark was at.

"_I'll take that now..._" Iblis said with a singsongish tone, reaching for the cat and scruffing him, Tape hissing and spitting and twisting himself to trying and get Iblis to lose his grip. Dark had his hand around Tape's foot loosely, his eyes distant as he pleaded: "_... Please don't hurt him... why can't I just give you the Emeralds sooner and you just leave him alone? Him and Mephy both?_"

"_Then I wouldn't get to see you suffer... that's no fun at all..._" Iblis shrugged, prying Dark's hand off. "_If you were more like me... it wouldn't be this way... the weak just don't survive evolution... shame really... you had so much potential until you wanted attachment... we would have made a great team..._"

"... _We would have been brothers..._" Dark countered too lowly to be heard by anyone other than Mephiles as Iblis made his leave.

Mephiles looked at him with a hurt expression, as if he was actually upset with himself.

"Dark... I'm sorry... I tried... But... But he just..."

"_You never mentioned that you... that... you know your brother was sick, and you-?_"

"I was stupid then... I was jealous that Mom favored him more, I guess... but I was really too young to understand why it was like that... I... I'm really sorry..." Mephiles looked down and lowered his head and shuddered. "You think I don't know that? At least by the time it got worse, I would have been able to make amends, and all that... but Iblis killed Ceus with Chinus and Mom... and I wasn't there at all... because I wanted to see what was beyond the cage... Mom said to stick t-together because Ceus couldn't keep up... and I ignored all that..." Mephiles inhaled sharply and started hicupping every few seconds. "... Y-you ask why I c-care... why (hic) I keep coming b-back to h-help (hic)... well... it's because (hic)... I didn't one time... and I lost (hic) everything b-because of that..." He gave a short laugh, as if he found this all ironic. "And now... I c-cared too much (hic)... and I still screwed up..."

Dark didn't know what to think right now. He simply looked at Mephiles closed his eyes and turned away from him, his head down.

Mephiles wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and whispered: "... I'm sorry Dark... You're the second brother I failed..."

He started crying so loudly, Dark couldn't hear himself whimper.

* * *

FINALLY! Iblis makes his move! This can't be good for anyone...

As for this little bit about Mephiles... I had been toying with the idea, and decided that it would not only be interesting, but gives a quick good reason why he's so protective of Dark now...

Laters. ^^


	35. A Warning

Well, I must say I apologize for the inactivity for a while. See, this chapter was stuck for a bit at one point, and just this Thursday we just had, my younger sister (younger by about 2 years) moved in with us, and of course, I have never gotten to know her since I was 12 and she was 10. So naturally, I've been getting to know her, and seeing what we have in common...

It astounds me that I can start talking about one thing, and she most likely knows about it... at one point, that called for the revival of my 2 seasons of Teen Titans on DVD (I seriously need to get the last 3 seasons... I need to get a Season 4 fix again... the Raven story arc was so cool that it tears at my brain that those episodes are nearly impossible to find in perfect quality online (I intend to put them on my iPod).), and even that I tapped into my Teen Titans video game again just to get back at it again...

Then I realized something interesting...

There is quite a bit of overall influence in this fic from that show. Dark and Iblis nearly echo some Robin and Slade-ness from episodes such as Apprentice parts 1 and 2, Haunted and every other major part. Dark and Iblis have acted Slade-ish at some points, and heck... looking at a couple episodes (or a lot) again, I can see where I incorporated favorite concepts. Just one look at this episode should point out a few for you: http:// tvmoviecentral. com/ Teen-Titans/ tv/season-3/ episode-5-haunted/ source-1 (Remove the spaces in the slashes...)

Enjoy the chapter...

* * *

"Dark?" Mephiles said in a small voice while hanging up the phone. Dark didn't speak. "... Dark? I... I called where Shadow and Rouge are... they'll be trying to get home so that we... s-so that we can plan what we sh-should do next..."

Dark hung his head lower, sinking a bit to the ground.

"... We'll get him back..."

Still nothing.

"... Why would he want to take a kitten..? After what he did to you... this just seems low..."

"_... It's because it's something I like..._"

"Why does he do this stuff to you...? It's not right..."

"_... Logic can't explain..._" Dark whispered as he sank a bit, staring at the ground dejectedly. "_... Just trying to sort it out myself tears what I have left to collect it with apart..._"

Mephiles couldn't help but notice how unsteady Dark looked at the moment. He was leaning all his weight into one arm, which was shaking, and his eyes had a distant look to them.

"Are you alright?"

Dark looked up with a look where his eyes where half closed, one more so then the other, and just stared before saying: "_... I think he drained me... when he was prying my hand off Tape..._"

Then his eyes closed and he fell on his side, absolutely exhausted. Mephiles cursed and grabbed him under the arms and pulled him back to the living room and heaved him on the couch with a lot of effort, surprised that Dark seemed heavier than he was ten minutes ago.

_What's up with that? He wasn't this heavy with I was trying to get him to his feet... _Mephiles pondered before moving on to a more important matter. _Why did Iblis pick _now _of all times to pull this off!? Why did he chose to take _Tape _from Dark? Isn't he satisfied with what he's done already? What could he possibly... oh, geez! He's got an Emerald! What are we-how are we-_

Mephiles suddenly realized he was panting and wheezing, his chest feeling like something heavy was sitting on it, and his head starting to get dizzy.

_Bad time... bad time... can't have a panic attack when I'm alone... _He told himself as he grasped the arm of the couch with one hand to brace himself as he clutched his chest with the other. _Slow breaths... slow breaths... happy thoughts... breathe through my nose... remain calm... stay calm..._

When the sharp pain subsided, he bolted for the kitchen and hastily got the coffee pot started, hands shaking as he just dumped all the needed ingredients into the machine, not bothering to measure because he was in dire need of something that was stop him from shaking all over.

"C'mon... work faster, darn it!" He shouted as he paced back and forth frantically, stealing glances back at the couch to check on Dark.

Once or twice, he took a moment to stop waiting on it to check on his Chao, almost panicking again when he couldn't find them, until he saw that all three of them were huddled together under the bathroom sink, shaken but alright, the boys both holding onto Krystal, who broke free from them and jumped into Mephiles' arms, crying and hiding her face in his white fur. No doubt she had felt Iblis' presence and she remembered it when Iblis was hiding in Mephiles' mind.

Sharpe and Kai crawled out from under the sink, giving concerned looks towards the scared Chao.

"Who's idea was it to hide?" Mephiles asked all of them, watching Sharpe lift his paw and point at Kai, who nodded. "That was a very good call... thank you..." Mephiles shuddered and added: "Iblis, Dark's brother... the bad one who got him sent to the hospital... well... he... he took Tape. The kitten... He t-took him... if you all weren't hiding... he might have g-gotten one of you, t-too... I dunno what his p-plan is... but I'm glad you're all right... all of you..."

With Krystal still in his arms, he went back to the kitchen, with Sharpe and Kai following close behind. The coffee was ready, and he dumped at least a quarter of a cup of sugar into a mug after setting his Chao down, needing a lot of sugar induced energy to help him calm down, due to his body's metabolism being cross wired. The more sugar and sweets he had, the calmer he was. That's just how he differed most from people his age.

He kept his eyes on the clock, trying to distract himself by watching the second hand move. He didn't want to start panicking again if he was pretty much alone, knowing that Dark wouldn't know what to do exactly, and even at that, Dark was pretty much out of it. If it did happen, he would have to endure it for a half hour at most, before he could expect for Shadow and Rouge to be back home, considering that getting a leave of absence for a good reason was tough enough with GUN, and he could imagine that under the explanation that a kitten has turned up missing might not be considered good enough to get that.

He cursed lightly under his breath and looked at the solidified remains of his coffee, deciding that he added too much sugar and added more liquid to make the rest more drinkable.

_I _told _Shadow that it wasn't too safe here! I _told _him! Iblis knew that we lived here... geeze, the guy even attacked us here! He probably learned the layout just by being in my head! But how did he get in here!? The doors and windows were locked! I didn't hear anything, nor did I sense anything!_

His hands were shaking again, as was the rest of him.

_Did he have to bring up that thing about Ceus? What was he trying to do? Turn Dark against me? _

He set the mug down, grab behind his ears and slammed his head down into the table in an action of being unnerved. To his displeasure, his body still seemed to want to go through with panicking, as he was still getting the pins and needles feeling as was typical, and he couldn't catch his breath while his vision blurred and his head felt dizzy.

He tried countering this by occupying his thoughts with at least the reassurance that no one else was harmed any more than being shaken. His head was suddenly flooded with what _could _have happened. That didn't help at all.

_No... I'm the one in control... I _should _be... stop thinking about the bad... it only makes me act like a scared animal... well, I _am _a hedgehog... but a totally different kind... why am I freaking out the worst, anyway? Dark had the slap in the face, not me... but he's lucky enough to be unconscious... I'm the one fretting... but, of course I would be! Our house was just invaded, and one of us was taken!_

Mephiles lifted his head up from the table to see Dark standing in the doorway, leaning with his back against it, watching Mephiles almost curiously, as if trying to read him. It was easy to see that Dark still looked a little worn, but he seemed to be paying no mind to that about himself. Mephiles assumed Dark was also trying to focus on not having a total meltdown as well.

Mephiles lowered his head and let his ears droop, still wheezing a little. The sight of seeing Dark awake and otherwise alright calmed him down a little, but Mephiles was still upset at everything.

"... I'm sorry I couldn't stop him..." He said quietly as he hid his face. "... and I understand if you don't want to talk to me because I never mentioned about my brother...you probably think I'm just like him.."

"_... _You_ never threw yours down a flight of stairs in a fire escape... and you never dislocated yours' shoulder..._"

Mephiles looked up and saw that Dark was examining his coffee cup with a raised eyebrow, seeing the entire bottom half was a syrupy sludge from all the sugar. Or rather, as solid chunk, because he flipped it over and shook it, with all of it staying firmly stuck to the bottom. Mephiles nodded slowly and looked away again, ears held out to the side and still looking quite dejected.

"... Hey... Dark..?" He said in a softer tone than he normally did. Dark's ears perked up response, the shadow's eyes still fixed on the mug, obviously pondering how one could have such a regular high intake of sugar and _still _display signs of narcolepsy. Mephiles hesitated, as if still thinking of how to word what he wanted to say. He took as slow breath and rested his head back on the table. "... Do you... uh... you can... c-can you... s-swim or anything like that..?" He lifted his head up just enough to look at him again, staring until he was going to get an answer.

Dark blinked and set the mug down right side up, and gave him a look that plainly said: "What does _that_ have to do with what's going on right now? Are you forgetting that my cat was just taken?"

"... But... you c-can keep your head above water... right..?" It was obvious that Mephiles was trying to force himself not to have his voice quiver at all, but it was also obvious that was a great deal of anxiety in it as well, that it must have been making it hard for him not to do that.

Dark shrugged.

"_Just about as well as you can... the crystals are too dense and would weigh us down as if we had a bag of rocks tied to us..._"

Mephiles looked like he would have rather been lied to. His mouth hung half open as he looked horrified at the statement, slowly shifting his eyes to the side and down as Dark watched him with a confused and concerned look as Mephiles paled a bit.

"_... What's wrong..?_"

Mephiles shook his head in small movements, as if telling himself more than he was to Dark and looked up with a wide eyed stare.

"... Remember a few nights ago... when... when I... when I woke up from a nightmare..?" He was being hesitant, as if convinced that more he discussed it, the more likely whatever was upsetting him was going to come true.

Dark nodded slowly, wondering where this was heading. He recalled briefly the event Mephiles mentioned, in which the hedgehog had been unresponsive to attempts to rouse him, and Dark, never having really seen Mephiles during a time like that before, was rattled by the sounds of the hedgehog's terrified cries that happened so suddenly and inexplicably in the middle of the night and had shrunk against a wall from unease as he watched Shadow and Rouge try and wake Mephiles up.

When the hedgehog had finally been made responsive, Shadow had to hold him down as Mephiles started clawing, biting and trying to pull away frantically, crying out: "... He's not breathing! … He's not _breathing!_"

When he was finally consoled, shaky and pale, his eyes found Dark, and he twitched before breaking down again into tears, Dark feeling like he did something wrong, and wondered if this happened to Mephiles on a regular basis because of what he had done to him in the past.

"_... Yeah... of course... kinda hard to forget it, right..?_" Dark said truthfully. "_What's this have to do with now..?_"

"... Dark... I... I saw you die..." Mephiles broke eye contact again and spoke in a softer voice again. "You... you drowned... b-because I couldn't help you..."

Dark took this with silence, quite surprised by this, but dismissed it as simply a hallucination of the brain in REM, even telling Mephiles so, who responded quite angrily for both the reason of being implied that his brain must have glitched, and that his warning was brushed off like a fly on the shoulder.

"No! Listen to me _right now!_" Mephiles slammed his hands into the table and leaned forward with a glare, the outburst making his double jump back in surprise. "Maybe you haven't heard of this by now, but when I have a nightmare, we sometimes take it with a grain of salt! Sometimes, it's a premonition, and if it really is, it's probably going to come true!"

Dark blinked a few times in shock before regaining his usual facade and said slowly: "_..._ _Statistically, the events for which to allow that to correspond with the premonition to a near T is practically so minimal that we have a better chance-_"

"THIS ISN'T AN EQUATION, DARK!" Mephiles snapped and barked at the top of his voice, again, making Dark cringe as the hedgehog slapped his mug away, letting it hit and crack on the ground. "I dunno how to explain it, but I have some of psychic ability I don't understand, and I believe every bit of it if it's making my animal instincts scream and want to run for the hills! Don't you get it?! Where he told us to meet him, there's a pond there! You can't swim! I had a nightmare a few days ago and then _this _happens! Doesn't that strike you as strangely coincidental?! Stay away from that pond! Don't you _ever _go near it! EVER!"

Dark had his hands up and level with his face, as if scared that the words had the ability to slap him, a little unnerved at Mephiles showing an aggressive side that would have rivaled the old Dark on a good day.

Because Dark's mind was still being restored, the sudden use of raised voices and hostility rattled him, and before he knew it, he was on the floor, hands gripping behind his ears, hunched over and low to the ground, quivering and rocking slowly as he felt ashamed with himself for showing such timidness without thinking. He would normally not tolerate such weakness, and yet, here he was, acting like a thrown Chao.

Mephiles saw this and gasped to himself, upset at himself for going off like that.

"I'm sorry... I-I guess I just k-kinda lost it when you told me I was hallucinating..." He sat back down slowly. "I'm not mad at you... I'm just... scared..."

Dark stopped rocking in one sharp movement and jumped to his feet, crossing the room and leaning in Mephiles' face with a glare that would stop a swarm of killer bees.

"_Scared? You think you're the _only _one who's scared?_" Dark said with an edge as Mephiles pulled back a bit uneasily. "_You got off easy! He stopped hurting _you! _But he took _my _cat! The _one _thing that liked me from the start of meeting me, and he just _walked _right in and took Tape!_" Dark's voice was gaining volume as it started to raise towards hysterics, making Mephiles flinch. "_I told you, didn't I? That he wasn't going to stop? He won't... not until I either join with him... or I'm eliminated altogether. He's using Tape for collateral. He knows I won't run as long as he's got something I ne-_want_... he knows! He _knows!"

Mephiles could only watch mutely Dark did something to the effect of throwing a tantrum, grabbing a glass that had been left on the table earlier that morning and throwing it at a wall, and then didn't pause to watch it shatter as he kicked a chair over. Whatever he intended to attack next was forgotten though, when his eyes shot wide open and he collapsed into a chair he didn't kick over, and leaned on the table with a hand rubbing the side of his head carefully, uttering a curse of pain under his breath.

"_... Stupid migraine... ruining a perfectly good foul mood..._" Was what Mephiles thought he heard, and the hedgehog wondered if Dark was being sarcastic. Dark spoke a bit louder this time. "_... I'd be willing to bet my entire vegetarianism that Iblis is the one causing these more frequent migraines... stupid flame knows he can knock my aura out of me for a brief moment... so I wouldn't be surprised..._"

"Just don't cause yourself to get exhausted before we have to get Tape back..." Mephiles suggested carefully. "That would just be terrible if Iblis got that upperhand..."

"_... Stop babying me..._" Dark muttered, making his ears droop. "_... How long can it possibly take for the both of them to get here? Can't Shadow Chaos Control?!_" He snapped, obviously getting annoyed at wasting time that could be used to end this ordeal.

"We save that for emergencies, since Shadow's usually good for one go without a Chaos Emerald, and it takes a while to charge again..."

"_What is it with everyone and their 'limitations'?!_"

"Get used to it... you have them, too..."

"_I do _not!" Dark stuck his tongue out, acting rather childish.

_Stubborn... _Mephiles mentally rolled his eyes, but otherwise stifled a laugh.

The both of them watched the clock anxiously in silence. After what felt like an eternity, Shadow and Rouge finally arrived, and Dark was quick to snap at Shadow for taking too long, and of course, his and Shadow's personalities created another conflict in which they both fought verbally before one of them pushed a bit too far and that would have escalated badly if Mephiles hadn't decided to literally jump in between the both of them, whimpering as Shadow's fist and Dark's open curled-clawed hand stopped just inches from him, Shadow and Dark surprised that Mephiles jumped into the middle of their fight like that.

Mephiles took a moment to look from side to side, taking note of how close he got to getting either clawed or punched in the face, and breathed a quick sigh of relief before speaking up.

"Stop it! Both of you! This is _not_ the time for you guys to be fighting, especially against each other!" He cried, looking frantic as he pulled his ears down. "Can't you agree on anything? How hard is that? I know you don't want to admit it, but both of you are alike! If you don't want to admit it, then at least agree that both of you are my friends! You both share me! I don't know who's side I should be on when you fight!"

There was a stunned pause from Shadow and Dark before Dark blinked and grabbed Mephiles and pulled him on his side of the invisible line separating his side from Shadow's.

"_I saw him first..._" Dark stated plainly, narrowing his eyes at Shadow.

"DARK!" Mephiles snapped, trying to pull his arm out of the shadow's hand. "That's not what I meant!"

Dark didn't seem to be listening, and was unconsciously tightening his grip on Mephiles' forearm, which, if you know of Dark's enhanced strength, most notably when his negative emotions fueled it, that Mephiles' arm was starting to go numb and he was worried that the bones might crack.

It was obvious that neither Dark nor Shadow were paying any mind to him, and Rouge couldn't see the expression on his face, because his back was to her. Mephiles inhaled sharply and focused on rearranging his molecules to allow himself to melt and free himself. Being inexperienced with it, he had no choice but to follow suit for the rest of him as well, with now everyone watching, and Dark closing and opening his hand in the air with a confused look, not yet having the idea of Mephiles already out of his grip sink in as Mephiles reformed again, sitting on the floor semi cross legged, leaning his weight into his arms as he had his hands on the ground, and had his head low and his ears held out to the side. In other words, he seemed exasperated.

"Can we just hurry up and get Tape back..?"

"Are you really willing to give up the Emeralds to do that?"

Mephiles snapped his head up and frowned at Shadow at hearing this.

"Well, I really don't see any other choice..." He said testily. "If we don't do something... Tape will die. You _know_ what Iblis did to my-Do you want that to happen to _another _living creature!? A helpless kitten!?" Mephiles was shouting now, greatly annoyed by Shadow's hesitation to solve this.

"You know what he'll do when he gets all the Emeralds, right?!" Shadow snapped back. "Do you really think it's as easy as you trading and he'll just let you skip away?!"

"... I don't skip..." Mephiles added needlessly, blinking before shaking his head. "But, Tape is Dark's cat! Iblis has already traumatized Dark enough! This is just-well what are-WHAT WOULD _YOU_ DO?!" Mephiles suddenly rounded the question on Shadow, which the black hedgehog didn't expect and flinched. "Well? I know you wouldn't hesitate to trade the Emeralds if it was me, so what makes this any different? Can't we trick him like last time?"

"The problem with that is that he knows that we would consider doing so..."

"But worth enough of a chance to do it anyway, right..?" Mephiles shifted his ears down even more and widened his eyes just a fraction.

Dark was getting very impatient as well as anxious and let out a loud and long frustrated groan before taking his original base form, the shadow, and took it upon himself to search the house for the Emeralds himself to speed this whole process up, passing into the cupboards first and, from the sounds of the dishes, cooking utensils and later the cans and jars when he moved to the pantry in a wisp of a purple smoky substance, he wasn't totally intangible and crashed into a few items, perhaps because the memory of exactly how to make himself pure energy had yet to be restored completely.

If the situation wasn't so serious at the moment, that would have actually been a bit humorous to everyone, considering that Dark cursed every time he crashed into something, and from what Mephiles sniffed when a jar was broken, as well as from Dark's cry of disgust, the shadow had shattered a jar of spaghetti sauce with miniature meatballs on himself. He sped off to the back rooms and after a few seconds he reemerged in his normal form (or more accurately, his form of choice) with the backpacks and ran back into the kitchen doorway, tossed the packs to Shadow, Rouge and Mephiles and then proceeded to gross out at having meat laden sauce worked into his quills, as well as spitting out what got in his mouth.

"_... Oh, GROSS! There's cow in my mouth!_"

"How did you find these?!" Shadow shouted in surprise, having been certain to hide the Emeralds in a place where Dark would not be able to find them.

"_... I kept looking until I found them..._" Dark said plainly before lapsing back into his tantrum about the sauce. "_GET THIS STUFF OFF ME!_"

* * *

After the plan of action was decided, and Dark was taken care of and cleaned off (Mephiles having done so, because Shadow seemed to have lost his ability to hear things only at Dark's voice frequency, so Mephiles suggested using the kitchen sink, which had a detachable sprayer faucet, so Dark rinsed his quills and mouth out over the sink), the now newly formed quartet (not a trio as of this moment with Dark as part of their number) were nearly to the meet up place, Mephiles very anxious about the basic plan, and Dark a bit twitchy from the combined feelings from the anxiety, the utter hopelessness he was feeling about this, and still not over the idea that any form of meat had gotten that close to him.

"Shadow... I don't think it's a good idea to have Dark fighting Iblis..." Mephiles said slowly, not being able to shake a bad feeling.

"Why not? He knows how to fight, and I'm sure he'd want to get a hit in at least... considering what that guy did to him..."

Mephiles and Rouge looked at Dark, who looked at the ground, keeping his ears down. He didn't seem to like the idea that much either.

"You have no idea what Iblis can do just by _talking_ to him..." Mephiles looked back at Shadow and sped up a bit to be walking next to him. "He kills any self esteem Dark has at the moment by making his believe he's... making him think that he's a low as a flea, or by twisting what he says and saying it back to him... adding and adding to it until Dark feels too helpless that he won't even stand up!"

"... Sounds a bit like what _he_ did to _you._" Shadow added, glancing at Mephiles sideways, who flinched.

"Then you see my point..." Mephiles quickly recovered. "But it has a bigger effect on Dark, because Dark, as far as he knows to himself, is alone. Iblis tells him that Dark being gone won't cause any impact... it'll be just like he never existed... think of it like me and Soleanna... but on a worldly scale!" Mephiles waved his hands around to try and emphasis just how big he meant. "Don't you get it? Dark only acts like that because that's all he knows! Iblis and him used to get along before the experiments altered them! Dark is at least a few months younger than me, so he's at least halfway past ten years old. We're not even teenagers yet! Dark might have a mental capacity reaching beyond what you or I can get to, but he's still a kid!"

"With a deep voice..."

"... I actually think he just growls all the time when he talks..." Mephiles added just low enough to keep that between him and Shadow before speaking up again. "He's still as young as me. Now, as smart as I am, how many times are you reminded of how old I really am?"

"When you act like one... or when you're helpless after a-"

"So you get the idea?" Mephiles cut across him, not needing a reminder of his sleep troubles. "Dark's the very same. Not an exact reflection, but he mirrors me oppositely. Sure, he's not likely to cry if he's upset, but doesn't throwing things, kicking things over and screaming all at once count as a tantrum? He's only aggressive because not only is that the best way to maintain his aura from exploding out like a surge, but also because Iblis made him think that anything but that will not be tolerated. It's imprinted in his brain, and everything bad about Dark leads us back to Iblis."

"Then we get rid of him, and Dark should be able to-"

"It's not that easy. It's not like Iblis has a hold on Dark that will stop as soon as he's gone." Mephiles shook his head. "Dark will have to be taken care of like you did with me..."

"Ignore him until he tries to jump of a bridge..?" Shadow said stupidly, recalling the moment that Mephiles learned that Shadow actually cared about him.

At the exact same time, Mephiles and Rouge smacked Shadow in the back of the head, making the black hedgehog yelp out, which made Dark giggle.

"Don't even _joke _about that!" Mephiles and Rouge shouted in unison.

"I almost got myself killed!" Mephiles huffed, folding his arms and sticking his nose in the air. "I'm sure you remember that!"

"I also remember you chewing on my arm..." Shadow added, flinching as if he expected a hit to the head. He opened his eyes and blinked, seeing that nothing happened and shrugged. "The point is, I did it all completely wrong with you in the start, and I'm sorry about that..."

"Then your mistake should have been enough of a lesson to know what to do with Dark..." Mephiles looked at him. "But really... I just don't think Dark needs to be here right now while we do this..."

"Why not..?"

Mephiles recalled his bad premonition to himself briefly before saying: "I just don't..."

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"... You have no idea..." Mephiles half moaned, shaking his head.

* * *

Sorry to cut it here... but the next chapter will start the fight thing. ^^;

See ya next time...


	36. Start A Fight

Gosh, this took for-freaking-ever. I apologize again... ^^;

I should say that the original ending has been now omitted from the story, since some of you might now what was going to happen, so I decided to start with a fresh idea, since that ending was over a year old. Enjoy the start of the long awaited face off. ^^

* * *

"Are you going to tell us what's wrong then..?"

Mephiles looked up at Shadow, having been staring at the ground and been silent for at least five minutes.

"... What if one of us gets hurt... like... badly..?" Mephiles said slowly, trying to mask over what he was really worried about. "... You know that there's going to be a fight... and there's a tree... rocks... fall on something wrong and that's it... and what about that pon-"

"You worry too much..." Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"... Because I know what can go wrong..." Mephiles muttered to himself, trying to suppress a shudder that happened as soon as the chill factor in the wind picked up. He folded his ears back against his head to keep them from freezing, and looked at Dark, who didn't seem to either care or notice the drop in temperature. "Isn't it a bit cold for you right now..?" Mephiles added to him, and Dark shrugged.

"_... Darkness and shadows thrive in cool temperatures..._" He muttered. "_... this is merely a touch below average... so this is tolerable..._"

_I keep forgetting he's not really a hedgehog... _Mephiles said to himself, nodding slowly at Dark. As for Mephiles himself, his fur was on end from the cold air. _I hate that even though my body can't be hurt by extreme temperatures... I can still feel the temperature difference... You can't see what happens on the outside... but I can sure feel it all..._

Mephiles looked back at Dark, who had a blank look touching his eyes as he walked aimlessly, holding his head in one hand. The hedgehog frowned slightly in concern and grabbed Dark's free wrist to keep him from wandering away from the group.

"Head still hurting..?" Mephiles wasn't really asking for an answer, since he knew it already. He was merely trying to see how well Dark could focus at the moment if he was having such an impairment.

With one eye open slightly, Dark peered at him from the side and just grunted. After several minutes of silence from him, he finally muttered: "_... He's making it worse... I just know it... Never had this problem before he showed up..._"

"Think it'll stop being so bad when he's gone..?"

"_... I wouldn't know..._" Dark murmured, choosing to shrug rather than shake his head, a bit worried that he might worsen it. The blank look became more prominent, and it was soon obvious that Dark was trying to block out the migraine, relying on Mephiles to lead him in the right direction.

Shadow exhaled one long breath and shook his head a little bit, finding it a bit much to know that the very same guy that terrorized them at least two months before was now like this. Just when Shadow thought he had seen it all, too...

"So let me get this straight..." He told Rouge just loud enough to not be overheard by the two look-a-likes. "We're taking six Chaos Emeralds to a fire element that wants to destroy us anyway, in exchange for a cat that was stolen from the dark half of Mephiles, who can't make up his mind what state of mind he's going to be in, and we're supposed to somehow get out of this with the Emeralds, the cat, our lives and previously mentioned double who has a screw loose is going to live with us or something like that when this is all over..?"

"Pretty much..."

"You do realize that this house has only one bedroom, right...? And right now, two of us are sleeping on the floor..."

"You never complained about it before..."

"..."

Mephiles looked back at Dark.

"Y'know... maybe after this is all over..." He said slowly, giving it some thought. "We can see if Dr. Thizon might be able to prescribe anything for it..."

Dark cracked an eye open in annoyance.

"_... The last time any of them gave me anything to deal with pain..._" He said with a bit of a defensiveness to it. "_... resulted in my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth... and me feeling like I might as well vomit... I'm having trouble deciding if it's worth it to scar what ever shred of dignity and pride I have left..._"

"It's not always going to be like that... that was a-"

"_Side effect... yeah... I know..._" There was a pause where he blinked and then shouted before wincing at his volume: "_WHY DO I KNOW THAT!?_"

"I honestly don't know..." Mephiles offered. "Maybe that's just a side effect of whatever... eh... h-happened in... S-soleanna..." Mephiles faded a bit on the sentence, unsure if it was wise as of the moment to mention that. "Y'know... you really don't have to come with us if you don't want to... I'm sure that we can handle it or something..."

"_The flame took my cat..._" Dark said slowly and clearly, obviously having made his mind up about it. "_Me not showing up to retrieve him shows cowardice... shows that he's gotten in my head..._"

"Has he?"

Dark didn't answer, but rather averted his gaze to the ground as Mephiles' ears drooped to that response.

In a few minutes, they arrived, and no sign of the cat and Iblis could be seen. Dark immediately round on Shadow, yelling that he took too much time, and all that, obviously angry, and Shadow's calm response that suggested that they should wait before jumping to conclusions did anything but make Dark settle down, and before anyway could say or do anything... Dark jumped and Spindashed into Shadow, knocking him to the ground before unrolling to grab and pin both of Shadow's hands by the wrist above his head on the ground with one hand while the other was held with the claws ready to slash.

"DARK! STOP IT! THAT'S NOT GOING TO HELP _ANY_THING AT ALL!" Mephiles cried out, rushing over to grab his arm to try and stop him from swiping his hand at Shadow.

Dark growled and pulled his free then backhanded Mephiles, who squeaked in pain as he fell back, clutching both hands to the side of his face. Dark seemed too absorbed in what his mind had already made up to have noticed that he had hurt Mephiles, and did not hesitate to resume what he was going to do.

Knowing that this would soon get out of hand if he didn't do anything, since Shadow was unable to, and he wasn't about to make Rouge do it, Mephiles did the first thing he could think of doing, and launched himself at Dark in a self propelled Homing Attack, using his feet to kick himself off the ground, unable to do a true one under any circumstance due to his handicap of not being a true Mobian Hedgehog. He succeeded in knocking Dark off Shadow, stunning both himself and Dark from the impact, and leaving the both of them lying sprawled on the ground, Dark on his back, and Mephiles on his front, with dazed looks touching their eyes, Dark unsure of what happened exactly, and Mephiles quite certain that he must have knocked his head into his double's.

Mephiles' eyes shifted back into focus as soon as he saw Shadow make it back to his feet, and knew right away what the hybrid hedgehog intended to do next.

"Shadow... just... leave him alone..." Mephiles managed to catch him by the foot to get him to stop and stay where he was at.

"Did you _not _see what he just tried to do?!"

"... He just wants Tape back... unharmed..." Mephiles grunted as he partly lifted himself off the ground, still a bit dizzy as he leaned into an arm while rubbing his head."He just got a little hysterical... that's all..."

"A little is nowhere _near _as out of hand as _that!_"

"... It won't do us any good to yell at him right now..."

Shadow huffed and rolled his eyes before sending a glare at Dark, who just stared.

"Y'know... that excuse won't work forever..."

"... I know..." Mephiles said quietly, lowering his head.

Suddenly, his ear twitched and he lifted his head up quickly as Dark gasped softly, picking himself off the ground to be sitting up, swiveling his ears to catch what Mephiles was hearing.

He heard nothing. But he _felt _something...

His fur and quills bristled from unease as he felt a slight rise in the air's temperature, but he didn't need that to tell him who was there.

Dark scooted back as Iblis appeared from behind the tree, holding Tape by the scruff, who appeared to have been knocked out. The sight of that made Dark's blood boil.

"_... If you hurt him at all..._" Dark growled threateningly as he got to his feet to establish that he was not going to make himself inferior.

"_Getting a backbone, now are we?_" Iblis smirked, completely shooting down Dark's confidence in just that one sentence. "_Too bad it's too late to really intimidate me..._"

"_Just give me back Tape..._"

"_What kind of a name is that anyway?_" Iblis said over him, pretending to be pondering that while scratching his ear. "_Not a very clear origin to that... Was it because you thought this kitten _really _could help you?_"

"_Give him back, now..._"

"_You're like the child your age says you are..._" Iblis had yet to hand the cat over. "_You think everything has the potential to be 'fixed', and that as long as there can be 'attachment'... everything can be-_"

Before he could continue, a Chaos Spear stung him in the hand, and he dropped the cat as Mephiles dove to catch him, sliding on his back to a stop as Tape landed on his chest and he looked up nervously at the ticked off Iblis, flashing an anxious smile before scrambling to him feet and hurrying back over to his friends, with the cat in his arms, muttering countless exclamations of relief to himself that he did not end up getting toasted for that.

"Here, take him, take him, take him!" Mephiles handed Tape to Dark, who immediately checked him over, narrowing his eyes angrily.

"_Well, you got your cat..._" Iblis folded his arms. "_Now, there's just the matter of what _I _get having returned him..._"

"You're the one who took him in the first place!" Mephiles shouted.

"_And as promised, I returned him..._" Iblis explained with an impatient air, as if annoyed that something was bing overlooked. "_The deal was that no one was going to get hurt if I got the Emeralds..._"

"You already have one..."

"All _the Emeralds..._"

"And you stole a cat to get them... that's just low..."

"_You best be watching your mouth, rat..._"

"For the last time: I AM NOT A RAT." Mephiles pronounced the last half of the statement clearly and loudly to make his pound. "Do I have ever growing buck teeth and a long naked tail? No, I have quills and can roll into a ball! BIG difference!"

"Meph, shut up..." Shadow looked at him sidewise.

"Shadow! He keeps calling me a rat! I find that highly offensive!"

"And he is the guy that can potentially smite all of us with that Emerald, so I suggest that we keep the talking to a minimum..."

"_Wise choice, hedgehog..._"

_Oh, now, he's just getting on my nerves... _Mephiles mentally huffed to himself once Shadow was called what he had just demanded to be.

"_Now then, the deal was that in exchange for the cat, I would get the rest of the Emeralds..._"

"If you didn't harm the cat, that is..." Shadow said casually while getting warmed up for some soon to be high speed movement, not unlike the way Sonic does while waiting. "So far, the cat is knocked out, which can lead us to believe that you broke that agreement. One strike on ya, creep..."

"_The thing's still alive, isn't it?_" Iblis rolled his eyes and snorted in annoyance through his nose. "_I fail to see why Dark finds this creature so important... it's-_"

Before anyone knew what happened, Iblis hit the ground when an identical shape curled into a ball slammed into him with enough force to send him sliding, digging away dirt and grass as he came to a halt.

Getting up and shaking his head a bit to shake out the grass and whatnot out of his quills, flicking off a few bugs off his shoulder, Iblis had a blank look on his face until he realized what happened and who did it.

Dark was crouched on the ground near Shadow, having given Tape to Rouge, and had been bounced back a bit from the impact, panting slightly as he narrowed his eyes at Iblis. After about half a minute of the two brothers staring at each other, Dark cracked a smile before twisting it into his old smirk, lifting his head a bit before saying: "_... I think my quills might have nicked you..._"

Sure enough, Iblis felt something run slowly down his cheek, and he reached up and touched two fingers to it to pull them away and look. Dark was right... his quills had cut him right on the cheek.

Iblis rubbed the blood between his fingers, thinking for a moment as he look at them. Then he looked up with an eerily calm stare.

"_... Oh... _Now _I'm going to kill you..._" He snapped his fingers and summoned a fireball in one hand before throwing it at Dark, who froze, ears plastering to the side of his head, having not planned what to do next.

Just seconds before receiving a faceful of flames (which, again... would not really do much more physical damage than singeing his fur off his face... but that still doesn't stop him from feeling the heat...), Dark was pulled out of the way by Shadow, who grabbed him by a handful of quills and yanked him just out of the way.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Shadow said, as if he was trying to point out the stupidity of what Dark just did.

"_LET GO OF MY QUILLS!_" Dark seemed to have forgotten about being grateful for having been saved, and merely responded by swiping his claws at Shadow's hand, prompting the hedgehog to release him.

"Geeze, fine... you're welcome for saving your fur from getting melted, jerk." Shadow heaved annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes while folding his arms.

"_I can take care of myself!_"

"_Of course you can... that's why you came to them for help._" Iblis snorted, failing to hold back the laughter at Dark, who flinched. "_Because you have everything under control... Don't you?_"

Dark didn't answer, but rather looked at Mephiles with a pitiful expression, as if asking him to do something. Mephiles felt helpless... he had just as much of a chance at holding his own as Dark did right now. Dark's face fell even more when Mephiles returned the same look.

_How can I tell him that I don't know what to do..? He already looks like he's close to breaking again... _Mephiles thought grimly, clenching his teeth. _But I can't do that to him... I just can't..._

Iblis watched them almost excitedly and added: "_Well, then... go ahead and tell him it's hopeless, you prickly rat. No use in lying to him, I think..._"

Mephiles twitched, swiveling his ears back as Dark pulled his down, visibly dreading what he might hear. Mephiles stared at the ground and took a slow, deep breath before looking up and taking a few steps to where Dark and Shadow where, kneeling down to where Dark was and looking up at him.

"Think we stand a chance if we do this together? With Shadow's and Rouge's help, too?"

Dark let go of his ears and looked away listlessly.

"_... I dunno..._" He hardly put any effort into shrugging.

"How about if we do it as brothers, then?"

Dark's eyes brightened just enough to breathe some life back into them. A shred of hope could be seen, not much, but enough to work with.

"_... You know that it's still a slim chance..._"

"Still a chance... enough to still try... and I'm a pretty lucky kid, after all... all the instances of danger aside, that is..." Mephiles smiled a little, Dark mirroring him and nodding. "Let's just beat him so we can save the world and just go home... 'Kay?"

Nod.

"Oh, and please try to get along better with Shadow... he just stop you from getting hit with a fireball..." Mephiles added.

Dark looked up at Shadow for a moment, then back at Mephiles.

"_... How 'bout we just beat Iblis..? That's a whole lot easier..._"

* * *

I don't think Dark and Shadow are going to get along any time soon. XD

I hope this is good, it was kinda tough to plan out, and barely have had enough time to work on this. ^^;


	37. Brothers

Well, let's continue shall we? ^^

* * *

"_Dark. Get over here. Now._"

"Dark, no... you don't have to listen to him..." Mephiles caught him by the arm as soon as Dark reacted automatically, having not realized what he was doing. He blinked and looked at Mephiles, mentally grateful that Mephiles caught him. "He can't tell you what to do..."

"_But..._" Dark started to protest feebly.

"Oh, c'mon... you're Dark." Mephiles tried reminding him with an encouraging tone. "You used to never let anyone tell you what to do. You could do whatever you wanted. Don't tell me you forgot about that, did you?"

"_Key words being 'used to'..._" Dark shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment. "_... I'm not even sure what I am now... much less who..._"

"You're Dark. That's all you need to know, right? You are you. No one will tell you otherwise..."

"_Dark, I am losing my patience..._" Iblis said edgily, folding his arms, and baring his teeth. "_Who are you going to listen to? Him, or me?_"

Dark looked at them both, taking a good amount of time before answering, raising a hand to point at Mephiles slowly, shaking a bit from knowing that he wasn't going to like the reaction.

"_... Brother..._"

"_You ungrateful little pest._"

Dark froze. That tone sounded venomous. His eyes went wide slowly and he stepped back a couple of steps to behind Mephiles, keeping his hands in front of him, shielding his face.

Mephiles watched this and glared at the fire demon as Dark shuddered.

"Haven't you hurt him enough? He just wants to ge-"

"_You stupid rodent. _You're _the reason he's being so defiant._"

Mephiles' eyes got wider for a moment as he sputtered, before clearing his throat and asking with a confused look: "W-what?"

"_You put these stupid ideas in his head about how he can be my equal, and now he dares to ignore me._"

"Well, he _should, _after what you _did_ to him!" Mephiles shouted, tears forming very slightly in his eyes as he held his arms out to the side to shield Dark, who groaned quietly, shaking his head, knowing no good would come of that. "You threw him down the stairs, almost breaking his skull! You slashed him and left him to bleed! You pulled his arm out of place and bit and clawed him up! You took control of him! You br-" Mephiles choked a moment on the word, letting his arms drop as he peered over his shoulder with a sad look, sighing loudly as he swallowed and continued in a softer voice: "... You broke him... more than once... but you broke him..." He blinked and frowned, speaking more loudly. "Do you care at all that what you are doing might _kill _him? He's your twin! Exact same point of origin! Why don't you feel anything!? He's not even my brother, and I do!"

"_You're a rodent who couldn't keep his nose out of someone else's business._" Iblis' eyes brightened with a light orange glow and he smirked lightly as his body started to burn the air around him. "_It would please me _so _much to be able to smite you and your flea right now... _you _have been nothing but a thorn in my side for the past decade, having escaped me by mere luck. Dumb luck, really..._"

"How is that, exactly!?" Mephiles snapped, having long grown tired of the constant assault against him for the past year, with several never explaining the exact reason why. "How come no one ever wants to tell me just why they want me dead?! What did I ever do?!_ I'm _the one who should be mad! You hurt Dark, and my-" He stopped for a moment to inhale sharply and try again. "You kil-" He stopped again, then frowned. "... I hate you..." He finally managed in a furious whisper. He stole a glance under the tree, and to his anger, he saw that Iblis had his foot right on top of a large rock he had placed there, having etched into it with his claws the names, and had spent some time absentmindedly scratching a few spiky shapes with feet and ears, not sure of what else to do with it. His eyes narrowed, and he said softly: "... Get off of that..."

Iblis casually looked down and twisted his mouth into a smirk before taking his foot off and sliding it under the rock, then kicking it over.

No one had time to even see the seconds in between what happened next.

One second, Mephiles was standing where he was, and the next second... Mephiles screamed in fury and attacked Iblis, scoring two swipes on him, one on his face, and the other across his chest. On the second slash, Iblis growled in annoyance and raised a hand, then buffeted him with a closed fist in the back of the head when Mephiles left an opening, forcing the hedgehog to the ground with a cry of pain.

"_Impudent whelp..._" Iblis growled, catching Mephiles by the arm and forcing him up so that the hedgehog could stare at him fearfully, Mephiles flinching at his tone. "_I should just tear out your heart right now... let you bleed... it's too big from caring anyway..._" Iblis leaned forward, his nose just inches from Mephiles', who was ready to burst into tears as Iblis caused the hand holding Mephiles' arm to heat up, making the hedgehog whimper in pain. "_... Or would you prefer a better method? It's less messy to simply strangle the life out of you... and easily more satisfying for me... or how about if we see if those crystals of yours makes you float or sink..?_"

Mephiles' eyes rounded and he reached his free arm up to pry at Iblis' hand, whimpering and shaking his head slowly as he lowered his head and hid it from sight. Iblis' smirk returned, and the low chuckle that accompanied it made Mephiles' blood run cold in his veins, making him feel ready to pass out as a reaction.

"... Why... wh-why d-do you... hate him..?" Mephiles looked up just a little, but still kept his head down.

There was a pause, then Iblis snorted, which was then followed by a loud and mad cackle that was so startling itself, that Mephiles was sure he lost a few quills right there from fright.

"_Dear boy, you must be mistaken..._" Iblis snickered, earning a collective confused look from everyone present. "_It's not hatred I hold for my brother..._"

Everyones' eyes went wide. Shadow was unable to help Mephiles get free from Iblis' grip because he didn't have a clear shot, and didn't want to risk hurting him. Dark simply stared in mute fear, stealing a glance at Tape, who was still being held by Rouge.

"_... It's the knowledge that he simply won't survive without a suitable host..._" Iblis bared his teeth a little in a sneer. "_Dark should have bonded to me when the accident happened... instead, he chose to bond to a weak little hedgehog, and let himself deteriorate over the years..._"

"... Th-that's insane!" Mephiles squeaked, realizing that Iblis was indeed full blown mad. "You're mad! You're out of your mind!"

"_Oh, no..._" Iblis shook his head lightly, keeping his crazed little smile on his face. "_Mad is what Dark did to himself. Did you know that he used to be able to use one hundred percent of his brain? He used to be the kind of genius this world could only dream of. After tampering with it to erase unpleasant memories... he dumbed it down by half, erasing most of his positive qualities by accident when he made an error in his theory and forgot to remember that he was working with the wrong hemisphere, since the sides control the opposite of where it's placed..._"

"So what!? Dark's still smart! And he's a lot better than you!"

"_Oh, really..? How much trauma has he caused you alone? He's broken your ankle, hasn't he..?_"

"_You_ threw him down the stairs!"

"_But don't you understand? Dark is a danger to himself and the world around him._" Iblis seemingly ignored him. "_Sure... he seems alright now... but given past experiences... how long until you think he snaps again, hmm? How long until you pester him one too many times and he reaches his hands around your throat, and presses? How long until lashes out at something innocent... like maybe that cat he's so fond of..? You already know he's smacked your Chao against a wall..._"

"If you never did what you did to him, then the events wouldn't have led to that!" Mephiles snapped, tugging his arm more forcefully. "He was so scared of what you might do to him that he panicked and that happened because of that!"

"_And he panicked because he's weak. He's unstable and a failed copy. He's a ticking time bomb._"

"What about you?! You're worse than him!"

"_I know... and I accepted that._"

"But you still haven't said why you wanted _me _dead!"

There was a pause as everyone waited. Iblis thought about it for a moment before shrugging, much to Mephiles' great surprise.

"_... Dunno... perhaps you were the only one besides that girl who managed to escape my fiery rampage before I was contained. Not only that, you became a wedge between Dark and I, and you're memories mixing with his in that Scepter caused him to become unstable even more, to the point that he couldn't even remember what really happened... Attempting to erase it did all but fix it..._"

"I don't _believe_ this!" Mephiles exclaimed what was on everyones' minds at the moment. "You mean to tell me that you have made the past couple months of _my_ life purgatory because you're thoroughly convinced that eliminating me and Dark will-" He paused and frowned. "You haven't really said the main goal there. Is it to justify something for you... or are you trying to kill all of us... or... what?"

"_I honestly have no real idea past getting these Emeralds... I figured I'd just wing it like I've been doing the whole time._"

"Wait... none of this has been planned at all..?" Shadow was the first of the others to speak, all of them having been silent for the past ten minutes. "There's no real structure to this..?"

"_Precisely. Dark's not the only who could execute a clever trick or two on the spot, y'know. In fact... he gets it from me... Like brother like... brother... am I right..?_"

"_You're not my brother!_" Dark barked, having broken his muteness and was now pointing at his twin. "_You're not him! The real him was replaced with _you_ during the experiments! It warped him into a monster!_"

"_I'm getting tired of all this talking... now, where are the Emeralds?_" Iblis brush the statement away as if it was dust, causing Dark to growl lowly.

"What are you going to do with them?" Mephiles asked, shuddering a little from all the hostility in the air. "You won't be Solaris. You can _never _turn back into that now that Dark doesn't want to..."

"_Then I guess we'll see..._" Iblis snickered, shifting his grip on Mephiles' arm a little, then shook him just enough to dislodge something in his quills.

Mephiles watched in horror as the purple and yellow Emeralds hit each other and the ground in two almost musical chimes, glowing dimly as Iblis swiped those two off the ground. Mephiles' previous bravery that had occupied him for the past ten minutes faded quickly and he screamed and tried to pull away frantically, almost in tears now as his instincts told him to run.

"_How long did you think you were going to get away with that before I caught on?_" Iblis crammed those into his quills and smirked again. "_I could almost hear them hit each other in those crystal quills of yours, stupid little rat. That, and you were being too calm for being the paranoid child that you are... These Emeralds together eliminate that... it almost worked... but like I said... Dark isn't the only clever one..._"

Mephiles' Aura started to come into view and spark as the hedgehog panicked, some of it branching off and starting to crawl up Iblis' arm. Iblis let go quickly, not wanting to find out what that might do, and Mephiles looked up from the ground for a moment before running back to the group.

"_How exactly did you lose twice to _this?" Iblis looked over at Dark with a bit of a laugh under his tone as Mephiles sank to the ground and gripped behind his ears, shaking as he curled up and whimpered in between gasping breaths. It didn't take an expert to see that Mephiles was having a panic attack. Dark watched anxiously as the hedgehog was consoled by Rouge, who was closer at the moment, before Dark looked up again, narrowing his eyes.

"_... You're... hurting him..._" Dark wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a statement, or simply a feeble argument attempt, or anything else for that matter.

"_You've done worse, need I remind you?_" Iblis failed quite miserably at holding back the teeth bared grin, as if he found that be quite humorous now. Dark flinched and frowned, holding his ears back. "_If anything, you're the one who caused him to have that condition in the first place. In fact, nearly everything wrong with him can be considered your fault..._"

Even Shadow could feel a bit of a sting from that comment. Mentally biting his lip, he contemplated that for a moment and realized that to an extent, that was his fault as well. If he hadn't sealed Dark in that Scepter, then Mephiles might have not gone through what caused his anxiety disorder in the first place. Incredibly, Shadow wasn't sure if it was fair for Dark to be receiving the full brunt of that verbal assault.

_I see what Meph means now... Iblis is just like Dark... actually... Iblis probably made Dark like that... and if things didn't go the way they did... Meph might have been like that... and then there's that paradox... man... I _really _hate paradoxes, now._

"Y'know what... just left the guy alone..." Shadow spoke up, shaking his head a little as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head. "You say he's worse than you, but you seem to overlook that he's just like you because you're worse than him." Shadow opened an eye to stare at him. "At least he had the decency to give Meph a chance, and gave him a few breaks to be ready. You, on the other hand, are relentless. You have hardly left us alone in the past couple of months. Dark never poisoned any of us. He never went after anything that was unable to fight him off. And you know what else? He most certainly never took a cat from someone who was recovering from a skull fracture."

Dark suddenly glared at Shadow.

"_... Stop defending me... I don't need it from _you..." He growled, baring his teeth.

"Seriously... what's it going to take to get you to stop holding a grudge?" Shadow rolled his eyes. "In case you're too absorbed in it to realize, I'm trying to help you here..."

"_I don't need your help..._" Dark huffed, folding his arms and looking back at Mephiles, who was no longer curled up and was now sitting on his knees, leaning forward against one of his hands, which was on the ground, as he wore a rather dazed and glassy eyed expression as he breathed in an almost automatic rhythm to try and calm down as he clutched his chest as he waited for the tightness in it to go away.

"_Well, who else is going to help you, Dark?_" Iblis couldn't help but get into the conversation. "_It seems like your hedgehog is incapacitated right now._"

"Stay out of this..."

"You _stay out of this!_" Dark snapped at Shadow again."_I said I don't need your help! Not from you!_"

Iblis snickered at this.

"_Oh, how precious! Dark's still torn up about losing an entire decade of time!_"

Shadow shifted his eyes a the fire demon then back at it's brother, who looked like he was going to go off into another rage fit.

_Oh, I see now... Iblis is trying to prove his point about Dark being unstable... so he's provoking him... _

"_Bad to be you, isn't it?_" Iblis grinned slyly. "_I have three Emeralds now, you're hedgehog is out of action, and the one offering you help... well... you're just to stubborn to take it. You're nothing more than a spoiled brat who never got anything his wa-_"

Dark snapped and tackled Iblis to the ground with a furious roar. His hand curled into a fist, and he swung it as he pinned his brother down with one hand on his chest, the hand making contact with Iblis' cheek, and caused the flame's head to turn as the fist was brought down.

Dark then simply stayed as he was, panting between his tightly clenched teeth as he occasionally swallowed, his eyes livid with rage as he stared intently at Iblis, body shaking from the adrenaline rush.

Iblis took a moment to register what happened and how to make his next move. He spat out a bloody tooth that had been knocked loose, and twisted his mouth into a rather startling smirk, showing slightly that it had been one of the canine teeth that had been punched out, making him short a fang.

"_Oh, dear... and those are my favorite kind of teeth..._" He tilted his head to stare at Dark again, who didn't change his expression. Iblis chuckled a little. "_Seriously, though... you had so much potential... You could have been so promising... I mean... it's almost like looking in a mirror right now..._"

Dark's eyes narrowed, and he raised a hand to punch him again, only for Iblis to reach his hands up and catch the fist before it was merely a hair away.

"_Too slow, little brother..._" Iblis shook his head with a grin and then shoved Dark off, who scooted back quickly, trying to put a good distance between them.

"_You're not my _brother!" Dark had almost a half crazed look in his eyes when he shouted that. He sounded a little higher pitch in his voice as well, as if he had to force such words out of his mouth.

"_Well, then... if that's the case... then I guess I have no reason to hold back now..._"

During all this, Rouge sighed to herself as she tended to both Tape and Mephiles, thinking almost moodily: _Why is it that I'm practically invisible to everyone_ _during these things? I'm quite capable of fighting too..._

_

* * *

_The Rouge thing is basically because I couldn't really think of a way to fit her in well enough, and someone needs to be on the sidelines to take care of those out of action. That... and because Rouge hardly got noticed in Next Gen anyway as far as the fights go. I mean, Mephiles is right where he can see her, and his eyes are on Omega and Shadow all the time. It's like she could have just walked right up to him and take the Emerald out of his hands, and he wouldn't see it. XD

anyway, hope you liked this...


	38. Sacrifice

Time to fire up the next chapter.

In advance... I apologize for what you might feel towards me in the end of this chapter... ^^;

* * *

Mephiles' eyes shifted to the side slowly, taking in the world around himself at a sluggish pace. He was starting to recover from his panic attack, and was starting to become aware once again of the situation that they were in.

Lifting his eyes to Dark, a hint of a frown started to work it's way into his features, and his ears swiveled back even more.

"... I knew he shouldn't have come..." He muttered almost inaudibly. "... His brain's still hurt..." He lowered his head, closing his eyes. "... I'm sorry... I let him get the Emeralds... It's going to be my fault if he gets hurt now..."

"That's not-"

"You don't understand, Rouge..." Mephiles interrupted the bat. "I-I know that something bad is going to happen. S-something really bad is. D-dark..." He started to dissolve into a sort of frantic babble, working his fingers into his quills, then gripping behind his head slowly as he tried to explain why he was so paranoid this time. "... I... I s-saw... there was... H-he's..." He inhaled and said with a bit more coherence. "Just as good as killed us all anyway! We're two Emeralds shorter than we were!"

By this time, Tape was already awake, and in a few seconds, was very alert, pulling himself out of Rouge's hands to her mild surprise as he shook his whole body as if to get rid of dust and used his back foot to scratch a place behind his ears, before suddenly stopping and fixing his yellow eyes on the fire demon, becoming very still as the fur on his shoulders stood up and he pulled his ears back, crouching low to the ground as he wrapped his tail close to his body. From the body language, and the low growl, it was obvious that Tape was not at all pleased at the guy that had forcibly taken him from the hands of one he picked to be his caregiver.

Iblis' ears pricked a bit as he listened in on the hedgehog's frantic talk. Now, there was something he could use...

"_Seems like your hedgehog doesn't have much confidence in the survival of you..._" He directed at Dark, glancing out of the corner of his eye at him to see his reaction. Dark didn't verbally respond, but a slight clench in his jaw could be seen. Not exactly what he was wanting, so he prodded a bit more. "_Y'know... I'm a little curious. Between the both of you... who's the most stable? We all know you're a ticking time bomb... but he seems to be emotionally unsound... but then again..._" He gave a small but in no way friendly grin as he looked over his shoulder to set both eyes on Dark, who had made it to his feet and took a stance that left little opening, but seemed unenthusiastic about doing so. "_You're quite the messed up one, yourself. Short fused, ill tempered, self contradicting, selfish, arrogant, miserable, alone..._"

Iblis then snapped his fingers in mock discovery as he started to pace around slowly, at least several feet away from Dark, who tensed. "_Oh, I see now. You want to change that. You saw what good it did for that rat, and like the copycat you are... you want that too. You want to feel like you belong somewhere so that your existence might be noticed..._"

He stopped in front of Dark and struck quickly, catching him under the jaw for a place to grab as he slammed and pinned him against the tree truck. Dark barely had time to react, and gasped in a quick inhale as the back of his head hit the truck with a painful amount of force, embedding a few quills that pulled out when Iblis let him slide to touch his feet to the ground, not wanting to choke him yet as he continued to have him as a captive audience. Dark cringed, feeling an ache work up near where his skull had been fractured weeks earlier.

"_Let me make this a perfectly clear as I can for your broken mind..._" Iblis said evenly, clenching his teeth as bared them viciously. "_... You've let yourself deteriorate to the point that you hardly have a grasp on anything, especially yourself. You're unpredictable, savage and physically dangerous, both with and without your Aura. You have a low threshold for irritants, and you let the primitive part of your brain think for you... who would want you? There are wild beasts with more cuddly dispositions than you..._"

"_... you... you made me this way..._" Dark managed in a quiet voice, the hold on his throat making it tough to speak louder out of fear that the hand might tighten. His eyes flickered to the side for a moment, and he vaguely noted that the sun was nearly gone behind the horizon, the sky burned with oranges and reds as the tiny lights of stars decorated the sky like bits of glitter placed with obsessive compulsive detail.

"_That's right. And you still didn't turn out right. Years of planning, wasted! That stupid hedgehog interfered!_"

Dark bared his teeth slightly, anxious in his mind as to when Iblis might decide to start draining him from contact.

"_... Tha... That's it then..? That's all I was to you..?_" He lifted his head slightly to have direct eye contact, narrowing his eyes as well. "_... a wasted plan..? You planned this? You planned ALL of this!?_" For the first time since any of this, Dark's voice rose in volume against Iblis as all his fear and unease at Iblis was replaced with something he hadn't felt in a while: pure rage and hatred.

Iblis was secretly pleased with that. The more Dark exploded in anger and ferocity, the more _he _ could draw from that. To Dark's question, he simply nodded with a mischievous grin, intending on fueling Dark even more.

"_A bit of a long plan, mind you..._" Iblis snorted, watching Dark's quills stand up. "_And was really only a general idea, being that I had to account for variables in environments you ended up in, but the intent was to get you to be more like me... that day... the accident..._" By this point, everyone present had become silent to watch the drama between the two elemental creatures, so that even the slightest whisper uttered by them could be heard. Not too much of a problem for most the ones there, except for Shadow, who lacked the enhanced hearing the others had, but was close enough anyway. Iblis snickered and leaned forward to whisper it in Dark's ear. "_... That was no accident. The math was all correct... the scientists... they made no error... other than not accounting for agitating an all powerful source of light..._"

"_... You..._"

"_One burst of energy can cause so much damage. You were too weak to recover as quickly as I did, and just peeled off me in a daze. Half of me was glad, to be honest. You were so startled, you wouldn't shut up..._"

Dark exhaled slowly as that memory came back in bits and pieces. All the sounds and voices seemed a garbled mess only he could hear to his ears. His eyes flickered to the side, his brain processing this rapidly, sorting through and trying to fit it with the jigsaw puzzle of his mind. It slid into place and he stared before lifting his eyes in an unreadable expression, half closing them as he pulled his ears back.

"_... You left me behind..._" He finally said softly. "_... you never looked back... never once tried to find me... you... you just abandoned me..._"

"_You could have followed. It's your own fault, Brother._"

"_... You never cared..._" Dark's voice gained volume a bit. "_... how dare you... How _dare_ you call me that?! You have done nothing, NOTHING to earn such a title!_"

"_Shouldn't matter in a while, anyway..._" Iblis grinned. "_I win._"

The night was starting to become more prominent, and instead, it was Dark's turn to laugh, much to everyone's surprise.

"_What's so funny?_" Iblis jumped only slightly, having not expected the snickering Dark gave with the smirk that was one of Dark's most well known actions.

"_... Thinking too far ahead..._" Dark lifted his head again and his eyes lit up with amusement, as if he knew something that only he could see far enough ahead. "_... counting Chao before they hatch..._"

"_What are you babbling about..?_"

"_Tell me... what do you see in the sky..?_"

Iblis was not in the mood for riddles.

"_It doesn't matter... I already have three Emeralds..._"

"_And we still have four..._"

"_Keep talking like that, and your life expectancy will shorten drastically..._" Iblis glared.

"_I'll tell you what I see... Nighttime... darkness... shadows... the temperature is down... the world will soon be at rest within the hours..._"

"_Point being..?_" Iblis rolled his eyes.

Dark grinned slyly, something that started to grate against his twin's nerves.

"_What's my element?_"

Iblis' eyes widened a fraction. He had forgotten about that...

He growled and prepared to slam Dark's head into the trunk, only for the shadow creature to disperse before it could strike against it.

"_Go ahead and hide, you coward!_" Iblis barked, tracking the shadow's movements as it dipped in and out of the ground, simply making sure not to remain static for too long at a time. "_That's all you've ever excelled in! Hiding! Like a child!_"

…

…

"How-?" Shadow said slowly, not sure if what he was seeing just happened this quickly.

"Dark's a shadow..." Mephiles said also slowly, trying to read what he could from Dark as the element traveled in no real pattern. "... I... I think that... well... know how some card games have field advantage, and stuff..? I think Dark has a... field advantage right now..."

"This isn't a card game, Meph..."

"Well, how else am I suppose to explain it!? I'm already frantic enough right now!" Mephiles shouted, still grabbing his ears. "Dark's a shadow and there are shadows everywhere now!"

…

…

Iblis lost sight of Dark for a moment, and that was just enough.

The shadow shot out of the ground from behind, and Dark took his normal form for a moment while in mid air, clasping his hands together and bringing them down on Iblis' head before the flame had any chance to turn.

"_That's practically how those migraines you cause me feel!_" Dark snapped, watching his twin hit the ground with a cry of surprise. "_But that's just a taste of it... I have to endure that for hours on end!_"

Iblis lifted his head up quickly and snarled.

"_If that's how you want to play... fine... I'll bite..._"

Iblis then became his base form, lunging at Dark in a fiery flair as the shadow sank into the ground.

"_Who's too slow now?_" Dark's voice sounded in the air as the fire missed, burning a patch of grass. "_What's wrong? Am I suddenly a challenge for you?_"

"_You're a pest! A nuisance!_"

"_I'll take that as a yes!_"

For several minutes, the elements raced around the landscape, Dark in front and leading as Iblis stayed in close behind, burning, drying and wilting the plants and grass as he got close to them. While Iblis simply stayed above ground, Dark took advantage of the shadows, diving the mist form into the darkest and most prominent shades, then reemerging close by in another shadow.

While Iblis left trails and disturbed the landscape in his base form, Dark was practically the opposite, able to leave where he was untouched and reappearing elsewhere again as if he were some sort of dolphin in the water... but much quieter and if possible... more graceful.

Mephiles was watching with an anxious dread. This would be the sort of thing that could cause either of them, especially Dark, to falter and end up in that pond that was worrying him.

"Dark! Pond!" Mephiles squeaked when the two elements got too close. Dark swerved and avoided it, and Iblis, oddly, halted immediately at the edge, and did an about face, backing up a few feet before taking off after Dark again.

_That was weird... I guess he doesn't like water... I hope Dark caught that..._

Dark wasn't concerned with what nearly happened. He was focused on what he could _make _happen. Moving as fast as he was right now, he needed to think quickly and work with what he had. Iblis would follow him closely, it seemed, and he needed to take advantage of that. Being in his element right now, Dark felt more alert and awake, and had more energy to use from a sudden burst, most likely from his high end effect of his bipolarity, which for once, he was thankful for it for the time being. That was something Iblis did not have. Unlike Dark, right now... Iblis would eventually begin to tire, having expended energy in not only maintaining a now not naturally common form, but moving at such speeds and concentrating on doing so with plan of action.

If Dark said he planned that all along... he would have been lying. His rapid thought brain put that together in a matter of seconds once he realized that twilight was fading into night. The probability of a positive outcome sparked a bit of life back into him, and his depression flipped upside down.

But, though possible to win, there was still room for error. Dark needed to be alert, and ready, knowing the slightest slip up would not only crash the plan, but himself, in both senses of the term.

All that aside, he found it quite calming to be not only ahead, but also holding his own and giving such a chase. He felt a somewhat proud of himself, a feeling that in the recent months seemed to have long faded from his memories. He felt quick,

Suddenly, the flame swerved from path behind Dark, and went for something else. Sensing it was no longer behind, Dark formed on the ground back to normal, crouched on all fours to see more accurately. He blinked and his eyes widened at not only what he was seeing, but what flashed in his mind as well.

"NO!"

Mephiles froze where he was. Iblis was heading right for him now, and he was too scared to turn into a shadow too, half worried if the target may change if he did. Panting in fear, knowing that he would never be able to make his body respond fast enough, because it had already locked up, he closed his eyes, preferring if anything bad happened... he didn't want to see it.

"_Stupid hedgehog! This is all your fault!_" He heard Iblis roar at him.

What happened next did so so fast that it took him a few seconds after he opened his eyes.

First, he felt someone tackle him to the ground, and heard a grunt of pain that was easily recognizable as to who it came from.

Instinct was screaming at him not to look. There were so many scenarios he could draw up that he might see, and neither one of them good...

Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, and found that Shadow had been the one to tackle him to safety, leaning over him like a protective shield, arms braced on either side of Mephiles, staring at him.

"Are you okay? He was coming right for you..."

"Shadow... where's Dark..?" Mephiles couldn't see with Shadow blocking his view, but the scent his nose was picking up did anything but calm him. Someone was bleeding.

Shadow looked over his shoulder slowly, needing to do just enough to see the rest out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened just a fraction and his ears shifted, pulling back ever slightly.

Shadow was trying to not make it seem as bad, knowing that Mephiles would read his face.

The crystal hedgehog's muscles tensed and he reached up, trying to shove the other hedgehog out of the way. Shadow braced himself, trying to stay immobile.

"... Sh-shadow... wh-wha... what happened..?" Mephiles stammered, waiting for a reply, but only got a head shake as Shadow tried to restrain the now struggling hedgehog. "Shadow, answer me! D-did... what's... I smell b-blood..." He then realized something all the more terrifying for himself and became even more hysterical. "I can't hear him! I can't hear him! Dark! Say something! Do something! _Dark!_"

Shadow caught him by the face with one hand, trying to keep eye contact with him. Mephiles was already in tears, but clenched his teeth and tried to quiet his cries, making them a low pitched whine that burned the back of his throat.

"Mephiles. Listen to me. I want to make sure you know this before you see anything. Alright?"

Mephiles ears folded back and he nodded slowly, knowing for sure now that he wasn't going to like what he saw anyway.

"Whatever you end up thinking... it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself at all..."

"... Sh-shadow... Is Dark..?"

The hybrid hedgehog glanced over his shoulder again, and pulled his ears back more.

"... He's not doing good... he's barely breathing... but he's hardly conscious, from the look in his eyes..."

"... N-no... No!" Mephiles shoved him away and hurried to Dark, who had collapsed on the ground, eyes half closed, breathing shallowly and staring at nothing in particular. Mephiles was horrified to see that this was almost exactly how he had found Dark on the floor in the living room several weeks previous, when he had taken "punishment" for attempting to alert someone, _any_one of Iblis' intentions. Right down to the wound he was bleeding out from... Iblis had clawed and reopened it...

Mephiles was breathing quickly, trying to fight back a panic attack as a rising bit of rage he was feeling towards Iblis, whom he noted detachedly was staring, hands palms up as he watched the blood drip from one of them, seemingly caught off guard and, unless Mephiles was mistaken... surprised.

Mephiles ignored him and carefully touched a clawed hand to Dark's face, keeping the sharp ends away from him. Dark's eyes shifted, and turned on him, staring at the hedgehog before twitching the corner of his mouth into a weak smile.

"_... I did good... d-didn't I..?_"

"Dark... you're hurt... I-I can't do anything about this... it's t-too bad for me to try and heal..." Mephiles did a terrible job of trying to hide his tears. He looked away, wiping them from his eyes, not wanting Dark to see that. "... W-why did you do that..? Shadow pulled me out of the way..."

"_... didn't want him... coming after you..._"

"You didn't have to do that..."

"_... I know... I wanted t-to..._"

"I'm not worth losing a life over! That's not fair to me!" Mephiles shouted, clenching his hands tightly as he lowered his head, shuddering and whimpering.

Dark managed to move his hand slowly and touched it against Mephiles' arm. Mephiles sniffed and looked at him again.

"_... Still a stupid hedgehog..._" Dark whispered with a hint of a growl, as if annoyed. "_... You're worth to s-some... more than you'll ever know..._"

Mephiles' eyes widened as Dark lost consciousness, his arm losing tone and letting his hand drop to the ground. In a rush of panic, Mephiles felt for a pulse and was saddened to find a weak one that was had a few pauses. He knew that meant that it was likely that Dark wasn't going to survive if he did not receive medical care in an hour at the most. He was certain that they would not get there in time, anyway...

Dark was dying... and there was nothing he could do about it.

The hedgehog looked up at Iblis, who hadn't moved since he attempted to attack Mephiles. He still didn't seem to realize what had just happened, as if the concept was suddenly very alien to him. Mephiles saw a shift behind his eyes... but he didn't care this time. Iblis could be faking for all he knew.

Mephiles growled and leaned over Dark protectively, bracing his arms on either side of him, using his body as a shield.

"... Haven't you caused enough trouble?" He shook his head, refusing to look over his shoulder to address the flame. "... you've done more than just break him, now... he's almost dead. You've bled him dry of everything... his power, his confidence, his personality, his self esteem... you robbed him of his _sanity._ I tried to bring it back...You depressed him so much, he started to lose quills and stop caring about how well he kept his fur. I kept trying to get him to at least run a comb through it... When you dislocated his shoulder, I put it right, and tried healing it. When you traumatized him so much, he had a nightmare... I was the one dodging everything he was throwing, trying to calm him down. It doesn't matter to me how screwed up he was... you ask who would want him? Who is willing put up with him and help, no matter how much he explodes into a rage fit, and no matter how much he lashes back in return?" He looked over his shoulder finally with narrowed eyes that was in danger of losing a few tears. "... I've been doing that for the past two months now... You took my family from me... and Dark needed one. I hope you're happy with yourself... you finally got what you wanted... you took everything you could from him..." Mephiles blinked and clenched his teeth, turning away as his voice quivered as he tried to carefully push Tape away, who had tried to curl up against Dark.. "J-just leave... he has nothing else you can t-take now, anyway... Just let him g-go in peace... p-please..."

"... _He jumped in front of me... he tried to protect you..._" Iblis said slowly, as if he hadn't quite heard what Mephiles had said. "_... He didn't run away..._"

"... Just go away... I don't care anymore... we lost anyway..."

"... _He's a shadow... shadows' aren't supposed to die..._"

"... He wasn't just a shadow... he was trying to be... he was starting to be a hedgehog... he didn't want to be a shadow anymore..."

"... _Why..?_"

"I don't know." Mephiles clenched his teeth, wishing that Iblis would just leave them alone now. "... He was probably trying to get away from you..."

Iblis slowly pulled the Emeralds out of his quills and looked at them. Perfectly cut, and glimmering, they were as mesmerizing as they were powerful. He could feel them release energy into the air, and watched them glow from being near each other.

He dropped them at his feet and stepped back, sliding to the ground and lowering his head, much to everyone's surprise.

"... _Take them... I'm going to burn out anyway..._" He said slowly, not looking up. "_... shadows outlive the light they come from... use them to keep him alive... I've put what I took from him in them... it should channel through you if you attempt to heal him while touching those gems... if he really is no longer a shadow... then let him continue doing so... I'll just fade away like fires do..._"

Mephiles stared with a distrusting look, jumping his glance back to Shadow and Rouge, visually asking what they thought. Rouge shrugged, but Shadow gave a skeptical look, telling Mephiles that he was thinking what the hedgehog was... and that was that this was too easy and possibly a trap.

"How can I know if you are being serious..? You tried to kill me too much now that I'm not going to just smile and act if that was nothing..."

"_... I suppose I deserve this..._" The dim orange glow that emanated from Iblis' eyes faded a bit. "_... but if you attempt so... and he later asks what of me... tell him what you want... make up whatever you think he wants to hear... don't tell him that I got a heart when he was within inches of death... he'd take that hard..._"

Mephiles stared. He was certain that he couldn't believe this...

* * *

Dark's not dead yet... but there's still a chance he could survive... which is something we all want. ^^

I'm leaving this at a cliffhanger because I want to be sure you all come back next chapter. Especially you, TARNS. That was nice to see a review after you disappeared for 5 chapters. ^^

And of course to the rest of you, new and old reviewers alike... I thank you all for making this not only my longest story yet, and my most reviewed. Remember... that's all thanks to you. I only wrote it... _you_ were the ones to urge me to continue this. Thank you and see you next chapter... ^^


	39. Say Goodbye

This is a longer than a normal chapter. This reached to 10 pages. While it's not the ending quite yet, it starts to wrap things up. Hope you like it...

* * *

"_Hurry up before I change my mind..._" Iblis growled. "_The longer you take to decide... the more likely it'll be too late for him..._

"

"... You tried to kill me..." Mephiles said slowly, trying to figure out if this was really just a trick. "... You poisoned me... you attacked me... you invaded my mind... you used me... and now... you're helping me..? That makes no sense at all..."

"_I'm insane... it makes plenty of sense to me..._" Iblis rolled his eyes while shaking his head. "_The original intent was not to destroy him, but rather, to break him enough to be more pliable. If I could survive, he should as well. But it was apparent as of recent that he has since seceded, and is no longer my shadow. I'll give you a guess as to who's he is now... as if you didn't know already... sarcasm on that last part, just to let you know, by the way..._"

"... You're still mad..." Mephiles shifted his ears back slowly, still having not moved from where he was, still keeping his body as a shield for Dark. "How do I know you won't attack us after I use the Emeralds on him...?"

"_Hmm... I guess you really don't..._" Iblis said with some thought, as if he had actually overlooked that. "_... And I suppose telling you that you just have to trust me is also bad taste..._"

"..." Mephiles frowned and cautiously grabbed the Emeralds in front of him, and stuffed them into his quills. Then he carefully grabbed Dark and dragged him a little further away from Iblis, taking care as to not drag him on his wounded side, the hedgehog pausing a couple time to breathe over his shoulder with clenched teeth to try and clear his nose of that blood smell that seemed worse on his sensitive nose than others, that didn't seem to be noticed by everyone else as badly. "... I still don't trust you... I want him to be as far away from you as I can get him if this turns out to be just another trick..."

"_What more can I possibly do..?_"

"Is that an invitation for ideas? I'm not answering that..." Mephiles shook his head. "... What exactly am I supposed to do? There's only so much I can heal before I start hurting myself... and what good would it do for him to have all his power back if, as far as I know, he doesn't have healing powers like me..?"

"_... He's resilient, is he not?_" Iblis rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"... I'm not so sure anymore..." Mephiles deepened his frown a fraction. "... Have you really taken a good look at just how much damage you've caused him..?"

"_He's still alive as we know of, right?_"

"I don't mean that... I mean how much you've damaged him in every sense of the term." Mephiles let his ears droop as he looked down at Dark again, who had already grown paler than normal, shivering from the slow decline in body temperature from losing blood, which Mephiles tried to slow the process by holding his hands over the wound and applying pressure with his Aura emanating from them, hoping that that was as close to sterile as he could get, since he, or any one else lacked any kind of cloth readily available for this. "... He's lost quills... some of them fell out... some of them were pulled, either by himself or something else. None of that is a good sign..."

"_Quills grow back, don't they?_"

"That's beside the point..."

"As much as I find it amusing that you're chewing him out..." Shadow interrupted, realizing that he, as well as Rouge and even the cat, was being ignore. "But you do realize the longer you wait, the closer Dark will get to actually dying? Which is something that I'm _sure _you do not want to happen..?"

Mephiles flinched on realization that he was indeed wasting time.

"... S-sorry... I... uh... Y-you're right..." He stuttered, letting his ears sink even more as he stared at the ground. "... S-so I guess... I g-guess that I have to just keep doing what I'm doing right now... right..?"

"_It would help to actually _hold _the Emeralds in one of your hands, considering that you channel your Aura best through them..._"

"... How did you know that..?" Mephiles looked up with a confused look. "... Only Dark knows that besides me... and we were in my head when we discussed that..."

"_... I admit that I may have taken advantage of the ability to access certain things when I was lurking in your mind..._" Iblis raised an eyebrow with his eyes looking even dimmer.

Mephiles shuddered with a somewhat creeped out look. Now he knew for a fact that certain corners of his mind had been prodded and poked at without his knowledge or say so. That made his skin crawl a little as his pale face darkened a bit around the cheeks. He mentally stuck his tongue out in disgust.

_Geeze... is anything about my brain off limits to anyone..? I feel like I can't keep anything to myself anymore... bleh..._

Then he realized something that might pose as a bit of a problem if he were to reach into his quills for the Emeralds. He was currently using his hands to lessen the bleeding on Dark... one hand would not be enough if he were to move it for a moment, meaning a short while of more blood loss... as well as reaching into his quills with a hand possibly coated in blood...

… _What if I shake my head enough to knock them loose? Iblis did that, so it can't be too hard... oh great... I just invited them to get stuck now with that logic... please work..._

After finally getting them loose (and to his displeasure, he saw that the purple one landed a little out of arm's reach, and nearly had a panic attack once it's effects wore off and his brain realized the basic fact that he had blood on himself as well as the possibility that Dark could die at any moment now. Luckily, the Emerald landed near Rouge, how quickly handed it to him the moment he started to whimper.), he kept a hand over them as he hoped he was transferring Dark's chaos energy back to him, noting that he was feeling something pass from one hand to the other that made his fur stand not out of uneasiness, but rather, as if he was near an electrical source.

Dark's breathing improved only slightly. He was no longer taking long pauses as if it was too tiring to try, but was now breathing in slowly, but was still exhaling in one quick short breath, as if he couldn't hold onto it as well as he could catch it. But all in all... it was an improvement that sparked a bit more hope with Mephiles. He was in less danger of ceasing in breathing altogether...

That was all the real improvement Mephiles could see. He hadn't expected a spectacular miracle, having been more reasonable in just hoping Dark could be keep alive longer to give them more time to get him help. The end result would be decided on not only the variables, but also on Dark as well. Dark had to _want_ to survive. That was just as important. That was one of the most crucial deciding factors...

Suddenly, Mephiles felt a sharp pain spread throughout him. He no longer felt the electrical charge, and realized that he had possibly finished returning Dark's energy to him, and his powers had now started to try and simply heal him.

Not a good thing... Dark's injuries were too severe for Mephiles to do much...

… _But... what if trying to helps him just enough to bring up the odds..? I know that I'd start to hurt... but that won't last long after I stop... right..?_

Mephiles clenched his teeth tightly as he moved his other hand away from the Emeralds and placed it on Dark, ignoring the questions he was receiving. He didn't care if he passed out from pain... if it meant that he could save Dark, then it was worth trying...

"Meph... what are you doing..?" Shadow said slowly, seeing that the hedgehog was now tensing up in pain as thin tear trails started to make their way on Mephiles' muzzle. In a few seconds, Shadow gasped inaudibly and rushed over to the crystal hedgehog, grabbing his arms and trying to pull him away as Mephiles fought back frantically, crying out in protest as Shadow pinned his arms to his sides by wrapping his arms around him. "Mephiles! Stop it! You were hurting yourself! You've done enough already!"

"I don't care! It was helping him!" Mephiles shouted, trying to pull free, but Shadow held him firmly in place so that he didn't try that again. "Let me go! I was helping him! Every bit helps! I have to do something!"

"You've already gave his power back! And you've done all you can now... that should be enough now..." Shadow tried to reason with him.

Mephiles relaxed a bit, but sniffled as he tried to keep his voice from breaking.

"... Wh-what if it's not..? I'm the only one w-with healing p-powers, Shadow..."

"He's pulled through some pretty bad stuff before, hasn't he..?" Shadow tried to calm him down. "You've already done more than enough to help him..."

"He's in p-pain! I have to do _some_thing!" Mephiles started struggling again, this time getting an arm free and trying to shove Shadow away, getting hysterical again as the tears returned. "Let me go! I hear him! That pain is driving him mad!"

"At least that means he's alive..." Shadow grabbed his wrist to stop him from flailing. "You're going to go mad yourself if you don't calm down..."

"I'll only heal him a little bit, even! I'll stop before I get-"

"No... you'll stop right now..." Shadow said flatly, shaking his head as he interrupted him. "I know you want to help him, and I know that there's that brain connection thing you both have that makes more sense between the two of you than it will ever to me... but right now... you look half ready to collapse from exhaustion... you probably started to wear yourself out from trying to heal him..."

"... I don't care..." Mephiles said in a soft growl, drooping his ears as his body relaxed again. He lowered his head and huffed a deep breath through his nose. Then he looked back up with half opened eyes. "... we still haven't found a square cantaloupe yet..."

Shadow almost snorted. That was completely out of place at the moment.

Mephiles didn't seem pleased with the reaction, though.

"... I'm serious... I promised him I'd get one..." He frowned a little.

"Maybe you did... but you've still got plenty of time to look..."

"... What if-?"

"There's that worrying thing I keep telling you about..." Shadow said with a hint of humor. "Y'know... the one that'll make your quills fall out if you do too much of it?"

"... I don't wanna lose my quills..." Mephiles muttered, resting his head on Shadow's shoulder because he was starting to fall asleep, blushing a little and cursing to himself about his apparent narcolepsy. Sometimes, he just couldn't help it... he just wanted to find a safe place to rest. Better than just just dropping to the floor, after all. "... But Dark's lost a buncha his too... his doesn't grow back as fast as mine..."

It was obvious that he was babbling from exhaustion by now. He yawned and shifted his body to feel more comfortable, and fell silent, knowing that he was in danger of falling asleep in mid sentence.

… _Maybe I exhausted myself from trying to push my heal limit..._ He noted to himself, finding that to be a logical reason as he nodded sleepily when Shadow asked if it would be alright to hand him over to Rouge, because Shadow was going to carry Dark... or that's what he hope he heard... everything was starting to sound muffled. _… I hope Dark's going to be okay... second time he's been slashed in the side... wasn't even finished healing with that, too... hope he doesn't hurt too much..._

…

…

The hedgehog now asleep, Shadow looked away, wondering what to do next.

Well, someone would have to take care of moving Dark. Carefully. As in actually making some form of contact.

Why did he have the feeling that carrying a rabid raccoon was a safer choice..?

"_... The longer you wait... the sooner he'll die..._"

"No one asked you..." Shadow snapped at Iblis. "Besides..._ you're _the one who did this to him. Your fault he's injured, not mine."

"_... And if you hadn't interfered... his efforts to protect that hedgehog would have actually been __worth something. By pulling that brat out of the way... you've made Dark's efforts fail. Add that to the list of reasons he hates you..._"

"And just how was I supposed to know that would happen..?" Shadow narrowed his eyes as he scooped the rest of the Emeralds into just one backpack and put it on. "Better question... why am I talking to you..? You poisoned me too..."

"_Perhaps you're curious..._"

"No... I'm pretty sure I don't care now... you said yourself you were going to burn out, so I doubt that it's worth our time now to ask... assuming you aren't lying, and that you aren't going to actually fake your death that is..." Shadow watched him carefully. "But, we have all the Emeralds now, so it wouldn't matter if you did try that, because I know how to use all of them at once."

Shadow tried to pick up Dark carefully, noting to himself that the bleeding had let up a good degree, having started to coagulate perhaps due to Mephiles trying to heal it more.

Dark opened his eyes very slightly as soon as he realized he was being moved, then looked up at Shadow before letting them close again, too tired to try and snap at him, and making a mental note to do so or something like that later if he was feeling better.

Tape crawled over to where Shadow and Dark were and looked up, giving a quick "Mew!" as if to ask to be picked up.

"... You're gonna have to walk or something, because the two of us who aren't unconscious have our hands full..."

The kitten tilted his head to the side.

"... You probably don't understand a word I'm saying... you're just a cat..." Shadow sighed, realizing that he was trying to talk to a kitten. "... This has been a long day... let's just go..."

Tape looked up with a focused stare, then jumped up, catching his tiny claws on Shadow's arm (making the hedgehog clench his teeth in pain...), and pulling himself up to crawl onto Dark's white fur, curling up and seeming to fall asleep, purring contently. Typical cat stuff...

"... He's had you for, like... two weeks... how is it that you're this attached to him..? Again... this is a rhetorical question... you won't answer because you are a cat..."

Shadow looked behind himself to see if Iblis was still there, and pulled his ears back in surprise when the flame couldn't be seen.

"Where'd he go? Rouge, did you see him?"

"No... But he did say something about... burning out, didn't he?" Rouge swiveled her ears to try and hear anything that her hedgehog friend might have not.

"... Something seems off about that..." Shadow said slowly. "But we still have all the Emeralds, so that doesn't seem to be too big of a problem... Wish Meph was awake at least... he'd be able to tell..."

"Let's just go... it's been a long day... and a very long ordeal..." Rouge gestured out of the field, indicating that it was time to leave. "We need to get everyone taken care of..."

"Well, I'm all right at least... that's one less of us to worry about..."

* * *

"Meph, wake up..."

"Hmmm..?" Mephiles grunted as he felt someone shaking him lightly. He opened his eyes half way, very slow on processing anything at the moment after just being pulled out of whatever sleep he fell into. He blinked and yawned, saying with very little coherence: "Wha... erm?"

"Eh... let's just wait until you're a little more awake..." He heard Rouge say. He nodded without really thinking. "You probably want to be awake when you find out what's going on..."

"... Uh huh..." He uttered in a quiet voice, blinking a few more times.

"He's kinda tough to wake up sometimes, y'know..." Shadow commented with a small nod. "I'm almost entirely certain that he probably has some form of narcolepsy... I've been looking into that more, and there's a lot of variants... when we have time, we should really think about having Thizon look into that..."

"Probably... if we don't have to have another adventure that comes up unexpected, that is..."

"I hardly call this an adventure... adventures are more fun than what we went through..." Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"You can't tell me that you didn't enjoy any of the places we got to go to..." Rouge prodded him. "Beach, mountains, Station Square, Twinkle Park, Central City... we even went back to Soleanna..."

"Yeah... but let's see..." Shadow started to count on his fingers. "I gave Meph a concussion at the beach, he got caught in an avalanche in the mountains, Iblis attacked him at the hospital in Station Square, him and I both got poisoned at Twinkle Park, I got mocked by a rabbit in Central City... and Mephiles nearly had a nervous breakdown in Soleanna... not sure if those are the fond memories we're looking for..."

"We can always leave those out when we recall them..."

"How about we never speak of them again..?"

"It still happened..."

"True..." Shadow nodded reluctantly. "... And the worst part is that we used up all our days off already... so it's going to be a long time until we can take that vacation from work... I was kinda looking forward to Apotos..."

"... Wha... Where's Dark..?" Mephiles was starting to wake up more and pushed himself up so he wasn't lying on the bed anymore. "... Where are we..? What happened..?"

"You miss a lot if you're asleep, y'know..." Shadow poked him, getting a smack in the hand from a rather unhappy hedgehog. "Well... to put things simply... you fell asleep a few hours ago because you wore yourself out trying to push your heal limit... we're back at the hospital... and Dark... well... they say he should recover... but it might take a while..."

"... So... he didn't die..? He's alright..?" Mephiles said slowly, perking his ears up. "... Where is he? Can we see him..?"

"... You could... but he's most likely not going to be awake... and if he is... he's probably not going to be aware of anything..."

"... Oh..." Mephiles' ears drooped a little. "... So he's still hurt badly..?"

"It's only been a few hours. But he started to come to about an hour after we got here, and initially tried fighting back, insisting he was alright, even though it was obvious he wasn't." Shadow explained. "They had to sedate him because he was making a scene. He was scoring pretty high on the Sedation Scale, as in he was very agitated and swiping at anything that came close... and he bit me..."

"Let me guess... the arm..?" Mephiles saw the wrapped forearm in question.

"It's always the arm..." Shadow suddenly seemed interested in the corner of the ceiling behind him. "... I might have kinda almost maybe told them afterwards to use a few tranquilizer darts on him or something... They didn't think I was really serious, so they just sedated him... Thizon said he was overexerting himself..."

"I still wanna see him..."

"You oughtta wait a while... he's not going anywhere, after all..."

"He might feel better if I'm there, though..." Mephiles pressured. "I mean... I don't mind hospitals as much as normal if I can be with you guys... maybe he doesn't like hospitals either... maybe they feel too much like a lab to him... if they do... he probably wants to get out... that's how I feel about them sometimes..."

"He might actually have you beat on being the most uncooperative patient here..." Shadow said. "But I'm serious... he might not even know you're there if he is awake..."

"But wouldn't it be a good idea that once he _did _wake up completely that someone was there?" Mephiles persisted. "He's already mentioned that he doesn't like being alone... he's probably sick of this place by now anyway... considering that a couple weeks ago wasn't a good experience anyway... y'know... w-with the... getting hurt thing..." He faded a bit on the subject before realizing something else. "Hey... what happened with Iblis, anyway? How'd we get away? Did he burn out like he said he was going to?"

"Honestly, I haven't a clue... Dude just disappeared, and we figured we had more important matters than doing a 'Where's Waldo' with him." Shadow explained. "He didn't try to take any Emeralds when we weren't looking, so we just dismissed it..."

"What do I tell Dark? Iblis said not to tell him what really happened, but..." Mephiles looked at the ground. "He'd find out eventually, since we've got that mind thing, and I'd hate to upset him if I lied..." He looked up. "But... what I should tell him, and what I'd like to tell him are two different things... and either one will end badly sooner or later..."

"Don't worry about that right now... it may be a while before he asks anyway..."

"... I still wanna see him..." The hedgehog muttered, letting his ears droop.

* * *

After much persistence, and even more afterwards, Mephiles was granted that, and after even more again... he was able to convince his friends to allow him to try reach Dark in their minds, just as long as he didn't take too long, and held the yellow Emerald to not only enhance the ability more accurately, but to also allow him to see if something was amiss.

First attempt... and he ended up right where he wanted... Dark's mind.

At first, it was indistinguishable from his own, because Dark's had been reduced to an abyss when Iblis tore it apart. But Mephiles did a quick test, attempting to create an object, and nothing happened, confirming that this was not _his _abyss.

Stuffing the mind copy of the Emerald into his quills to free up his hands, he started to search for Dark, wonder what part of the mind he was in, and where he might find his look-a-like.

It was pretty tough without anything to mark the distances and space, making the hedgehog feel like he might have been traveling in circles a few times at least. Everything looked the same.

_Poor Dark... I hope that he can fix this place once that Logic guy fixes everything... _

After what felt like hours, also noting to himself that it could have very well been seconds in Reality, because it was quite likely now that Dark's mind had no time relation to Real Time. He could be here for hours, and hardly any minutes could pass where Shadow and Rouge were at...

He eventually found Dark. And what appeared to be Dark again, but with glasses and a laptop.

Both were seated on the ground, having not noticed Mephiles yet, with the bespectacled one focusing on what he was working on with his computer, and Dark leaning in and trying to see what was happening, getting pushed from the screen carefully.

"_I can't work with your head in the way..._" Dark With Glasses said carefully, seeing that Dark looked annoyed and probably didn't realize that his action was hindering progress.

"_... I'm bored..._"

"_This is your head... do something about it... I'm sure I've restored your imagination process ages ago..._"

"_I have an imagination..?_"

Mephiles couldn't help but laugh at how genuinely surprised Dark had sounded when he said that. Both Darks jumped at the sound of the hedgehog laughing, the real Dark looking confused when he saw him.

"_Mephy? What are you doing here? Better yet... how?_"

"The mind power thing... the one that I have no idea how to work it right..."

"_... Then how are you here..?_"

"I used an Emerald... See?" Mephiles pulled the Emerald from his quills to show him, grinning at his own sheer luck. "Remember that the yellow one enhances my psychic powers? Well, if psychic is all brain stuff, then a little messing around should have given me a variant... This Emerald also helped save your life, too... the purple and the blue one did, as well..."

"_Didn't Iblis have those..?_"

"Yeah... but that's another story..."

"_... I got time..._"

"_Another _story..." Mephiles put emphasis on it to imply that he didn't intend to explain it right now as the Dark with Glasses returned to him computer work, seemingly ignoring him, perhaps pleased that he was going to continue without distractions. "Anyway, I really wanted to make sure you were doing alright... we got you back to the hospital, and you're all knocked out because you chewed on Shadow's arm..."

"_I know that... I was mad that he pushed you out of the way, making my save worth nothing..._" Dark folded his arms, frowning. "_Now he gets the credit for saving you, while I nearly died... again..._"

"Well, you not only scared me there... but you shocked everyone else by doing that..."

"_Hmm?_"

"You just risked your own life to save mine..." Mephiles sat on the floor next to him to be level. "That says a lot more than words can..."

"_... He shouldn't have tried to pull you into all that... not your fault you got involved..._" Dark looked back at him with flattened ears. "_... But seriously... how'd he get beat? I doubt he would have let everyone walk away..._"

"I said that we should wait another time before I explain..." The hedgehog reiterated. "It's just not a good time right now..."

"_You honestly believe I'm just going to let the subject drop?_"

"You will if you want to know how your cat is doing..." Mephiles said almost singsongishly. Dark gave him a look that said that he doubted that he would easily forget what he wanted to know, but all the same, he was curious of how his cat was at the moment. "Tape's alright. He's been staying close to you since we got back at the hospital. That cat really likes you..."

"_... That's good news..._" Dark smiled a little, but seemed to be forcing himself not to, which Mephiles found slightly amusing. "_... All that trouble over such a small thing... but then again... me fussing over a little critter is what got me into all this in the beginning anyway... I'm sure you'll recall that..._"

"Quite clearly..." The hedgehog nodded, then directed his attention to the copy with glasses. "... So... I guess you must be Logic, huh?"

"_Pleasure._" Logic nodded, looking up from his laptop for a few seconds to acknowledge the hedgehog before looking back down at it. "_... Forgive me for my inattentiveness... but it's crucial that I monitor the commit charge to watch for possible signs of crashing... or these programs-_"

"I'm sorry... but I barely understand what you're talking about..." Mephiles interrupted nervously, scratching his ear and looking at the ground. "I get that it's part of his brain, and that it's basically like a computer... but technical terms are half gibberish to me... if it's going good... than that's all I really need to know... if it's going bad... I probably don't want to hear it, but I suppose it's important to know too..."

"_... It's going... good..._" Logic said slowly, raising an eyebrow at him while looking over the top of his glasses. "_... After the defragmentation is finished running, then a reboot, a restoration and finally a transfer of the remaining files should indicate that we are nearing the end of this..._"

"That's nice..." Mephiles' eyes lit up when he realized the meaning of that. "That's really great." He looked back at Dark. "Isn't that wonderful? It's almost over, Dark." The shadow looked at him unenthusiastically and shrugged, earning confusion from the hedgehog. "... What's wrong? Everything is almost restored... that's good, isn't it?"

"_... It'll still be there..._"

"What will?"

"_... Everything... can't erase the bad..._"

"Maybe not..." Mephiles said, thinking to himself before speaking again. "But you make all the new stuff that's good. All that other stuff is gone, behind you, already happened... right now, every moment afterwards is still being written... all of our stories... yours... mine... I don't have an ending in mind yet... but I know what the next chapter for me is..."

"_Hmm..?_"

"Helping you. Whatever way I can. What about you? What can your next chapter be?"

"_... I dunno..._"

"Pick something..."

"_... I never really thought of something like that... I can see glimpses of time... but I never really thought of the future... not mine at least... I figured it was pointless anyway..._"

"That was Then... this is Now... Then doesn't matter Now..."

"_... This is completely ridiculous..._" Dark countered. "_Speaking about time as if it was actually tangible or to the effect of it is absolutely childish._"

"How old are you?"

"..."

"..?"

"_... Shut up..._"

"I'm older than you, too..."

"_... Not by much..._"

"Know what that means?" Mephiles leaned forward with a grin, looking very amused with what he was thinking.

Dark leaned back, trying to keep a good personal distance from him.

"_... That you're starting to creep me out?_"

"No... I'm your big brother now."

With an air of sarcasm, Dark responded: "_Cute... but seriously... everything will still be there..._"

Mephiles looked at Logic, who didn't notice him.

"Can you do something about that?" Mephiles asked, then seeing that the Dark twin wasn't notice that he was being addressed, added: "Logic?"

"_Eh?_" Logic looked up.

"Can you do something about the stuff he's worried about? The bad and not so nice things?"

Logic stared at him before finally saying a simple "_No._" before getting back to work.

"_Why not?_" Dark was just a touch away from whining.

Logic exhaled through his teeth, trying to convey how easily annoyed he was getting from having his train of thought constantly derailed, and paused from his speedy typing, half closing the laptop's clamshell shape to show that he was giving them his full attention now.

"_Because the last time _you _tried to modify your files, you left so much data corruption and holes, it's an absolute miracle they didn't crash before now._" The way Logic said that didn't seem accusing, but all the same, Dark's ears drooped and he sank a bit as a response. "_You can't simply dump such files... they are similar to critical processes in an operating system... they make up the 'version' of 'hardware' that your brain runs on. Removing anything like that could cause more data corruption as your brain subconsciously tries to create answers for something no longer there. A prime example would be that up until now... you've cited several stories as your 'true origin', and that was because your brain picked up things like a sponge with all those holes the file deletions left, and simply filled in the blanks when time called for it. The result is something far from the truth, and you were none the wiser..._"

"Yikes... that sounds pretty bad..." Mephiles cringed. "I kinda noticed his changing stories, but I figured not to question them because he'd snap pretty quickly at me..."

"_... It wasn't _that _bad..._" Dark said feebly, still recovering from the verbal boot-to-the-head he had just gotten.

"Maybe not on your end... but I used to get hurt badly..."

Dark's ears seemed to be in danger of disappearing under his thinned quills... at least... where they hadn't started falling out from yet.

Mephiles took note of this and frowned smally before reversing it to a small smile and said: "Y'know... we could get your quills growing back real soon, and get your fur fixed up too."

"_Huh?_"

"Your quills... remember? You're missing some..." Mephiles indicated where on his own head he meant. "If you feel your hand to the back of your head, there's a bald spot. And your fur looks kinda grimy... the ends are sticking together... it looks messy..." He blinked and gave a confused look. "Hey... hold your wrist up for a moment..."

"_Why..?_"

"It looks thin... like mine, but a little smaller..."

"_... Is that bad..?_"

"Not generally, but they just seem... off... maybe because you've been feeling bad for a while..." The hedgehog tried to reassure him. "But, it could just be that your fur and quills look bad, so it just makes you _look _thinner than you are..."

_But he looks sickly..._ Mephiles told himself, taking note of everything. In addition to his thinning quills, and matting fur... Dark's body seemed to visibly border on the edge of underweight and frail. Even his eyes, which had once seemed to have been the brightest of their spectrum, giving almost an unreal look to them (ignoring the fact that his eyes were not a normal color anyway), seemed to have dulled as if a dusty window was in front of them. How had he missed that before now? He knew Dark was suffering from this ordeal both physically, and mentally... but Dark seemed to be a shell now. A shadow of himself, as the case may be...

Dark was looking at his wrists, frowning slightly, before concluding: "_Perhaps the layers of crystals are making my hands seem big..._" He did not want to admit that he had let himself fall into such a state. He still wanted to hold onto whatever shred of dignity he had left. Wherever it was...

For whatever time passed, the hedgehog, the shadow, and the copy sat in silence as Logic typed away at his laptop, running his fingers over the mouse-pad-area that the laptop had built in, clicking away at things, and hitting hot keys at such a speed, you would think he was a professional.

Mephiles glanced at Dark again, who hadn't looked up since he had stopped talking. Dark didn't look up, refusing to let the hedgehog see more of his weakened state. The knowledge of that made him feel awkward, because it was not something that was expected of him.

A few more minutes later, and Logic announced that he was now rebooting the system. Dark lifted his ears to show that he had heard, but for some reason, didn't seem as enthusiastic about it as Mephiles did, much to the hedgehog's confusion.

"_Don't worry... he's just baffled..._" Logic explained. "_I've reopened many of the blocked pathways, and he's feeling things he had blocked over a decade ago... It'll be just as if he had felt them the first time..._"

"_Take them back..._" Dark half whined with wide eyes. "_Th-there's too many of them... I don't like that... it's too much..._"

"Give it time..." Mephiles smiled a little, trying to help him feel better. "I'll bet that's a lot to handle right now, but you've got plenty of time to pick favorites... maybe now you can find the right ones, without having to get so frustrated anymore..."

Dark looked a little dizzy, and braced himself with one hand against the ground he was already sitting on, the other was held to his head. He looked up, and raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"_Where are you going..?_"

Logic had picked up his laptop and was preparing to leave.

"_I don't belong in this part of your mind, Dark..._" He explained, much to Dark's apprehension. "_I told you about this before... when the process was done, I would have to leave..._"

"_But... I-I'm still confused!_" Dark added desperately. "_You can't be done yet! You have to explain stuff to me, still..._"

"_Dark, I can only do so much..._" Logic explained, looking back at him with an almost sad look. "_I've done all I can, now... the rest is really up to you..._"

"_No..._" Dark shook his head slowly as Mephiles watched this all play out, the hedgehog uncertain of what to do. He could feel that Dark was getting frantic. "_... No, wh-what if... it's too... you just can't. I... I forbid it!_"

"_... That can really do nothing... you can forbid all you want, but I cannot stay..._" Logic shook his head. "_... I've exceeded my welcome as a personification of a concept, and must return to the part of your mind that I belong. I do not want to think of the consequences if I do not go back..._"

"_... I... No. No... Mephy, make him stay!_" Dark looked at Mephiles, pointing at Logic. "_I don't want him to go! Do something!_"

"What can _I _do..?" Mephiles looked at the ground. "I have no control here... this is your mind..."

"_He won't listen!_"

"_Dark, look at me..._" Logic motioned his hand to catch the shadow's attention. "_We went through this already. I can't stay here. I'll fade back into your subconscious... but it's not like I'll be gone forever. I've been around longer than you realize. Anytime you've use logic... that's me. I make that happen for you. If I'm here, you cannot do that... That's why I have to go back now... it's what's best for you. I'm sorry that you don't approve... I really am... Goodbye, Dark..._"

Dark was silent for the minutes after Logic left. Mephiles hesitantly reached a hand for him, putting his arm around his shoulder. For once, Dark did not object.

"_... He left..._" Dark said quietly, taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly. "_... He helped so much... then he just left..._"

"... But I'm still here..." Mephiles added.

Dark looked up and stared before letting a small smile show.

"_... Yeah... that you are..._" He forced a short laugh and shoved Mephiles' arm off gently. "_... Thank you..._"

* * *

Well, it looks like Dark will be alright now, and Logic has returned to where he belongs... but there's still a bit more left to do.

Kinda hard to believe that this story is finally coming to a close, right? Nearly 2 years in the making... accounting for delays and real life distractions... I'm quite impressed that I got this much done...

I estimate at least two chapters left, then I can start fleshing out the next story. I doubt that it will be this long, though ^^;

Before I go... I want to thank all the reviewers and readers alike that kept this particular one from fading into an unfinished adventure. Even though I write this, it's all of you who encourage it to continue. Thank you. ^^


	40. Coasting to a Stop

This took longer than I expected. ^^;

Jak has been a been more... eh... what's the word? He's been wanting undivided attention. As late as 4 AM IN THE FREAKING MORNING. O_O

Also, the poor doggie had another seizure a couple days before my birthday, this time having barfed five times then loosing awareness slowly before it happened. T_T

Understandably, I'm keeping a close watch on his actions to try and stop and counter the next one before it happens...

In other news... one more chapter until this story is over...

* * *

Crystal coated fingers ran over the back of his head carefully.

"_... I think they're growing back._" Dark said slowly, touching his fingers to his head again as if to make sure. "_... Geeze, that feels weird..._"

"Lemmie see..." Mephiles actually grabbed Dark's head and pulled the poor shadow by it across the bed to take a better look, too excited to realize what he was really doing. "Wow, they don't have the crystals yet. They'll come in a week after the quills are long enough."

"_That's great... now let go of me..._" Dark said unamused. "_... This is rather uncomfortable to be manhandled like this..._"

"Oh... I'm sorry..." Mephiles let him go and looked at the ground, drooping his ears. He looked up again at the door and lapsed back into excitement, grabbing Dark again the same way, the shadow's cries of "_Sonofa-!_" were drowned out by the hedgehog's cheery chatter to his friends of the condition of Dark's quills as Dark tried desperately to pry his hands off his head. He finally gave up and let his arms drop to his side, groaning in frustration as he was ignore for all but his quills.

"_Oh, sure! Show them to everyone!_" Dark said sarcastically in a loud voice, hoping to be heard. "_Not like the idea of why they _need _to grow back in the first place being shoved in my face is a bad thing! Oh, and don't forget the bald skin there! I don't mind!_"

"Oh... is this bothering you, Dark?" Mephiles looked at him and said with the utmost innocence that even Dark found it hard to crush and sweep under a rug.

Forcing his face to bare a fake grin, he responded: "_Not at all... carry on..._"

He regretted saying that in a few minutes, because he felt like a prized stuffed toy of a child, being carted off to everyone that walked near, Mephiles actually dragging Dark as he showed even the doctors and nurses that he hardly knew.

Everyone, that is... except for Shela.

Mephiles froze and shut up as soon as he saw her. He even let go of Dark, who fell flat on the tiling of the hospital floor, shouting in surprise. Mephiles just stared, eyes wide, and ears held back as his mouth hung open.

Dark looked up from the floor, tilting his head questioningly as he looked at Mephiles. Then he looked at the cat. Then back at Mephiles. And then the cat again. Then Mephiles...

It was plain as the sky was blue to Dark that Mephiles did not like this person.

And given Mephiles' history of being the kind of person to find even a grain the size of sand that was good in a person (Dark should know...), this was no laughing matter.

"_Mephy..? Who is this lady?_" Dark said, not caring that he spoke it quite clearly and loudly.

Mephiles looked at him slowly, swallowing a little before saying: "... She tried to have me framed for trying to kill you..."

"_But you never..._" Dark trailed off slowly when he realized that could have happened. When he was first hospitalized. When Iblis had torn his claws into his side, and left Dark to the near edge of death. When Iblis had done all that using Mephiles. When he was...

Dark widened his eyes just a fraction, and pushed himself off the floor. So this was the person who tried to have Mephiles locked away?

Within seconds, Dark felt a growing strong dislike for this cat, which intensified further when she spoke.

"Well, you must be Dark..."

The way she addressed him... he didn't like it. In addition to speaking to him as if he were a child (he refused to believe that he should be treated like his age...), he could easily pick apart the tone of her voice. False sweetness rotting with an undertone of unpleasant intentions, drizzled with the means to twist things out of context. He knew that quite well, unfortunately, though to a much greater extreme.

He growled almost inaudibly in his throat as he stared at the hand she had outstretched. No way in Chaos was he going to give a friendly gesture after all the trouble she alone caused. Mephiles nearly had a breakdown thanks to her!

When she noticed Dark's actions, she withdrew her hand slowly and brought it to her folder she was carrying, which was in danger of spilling out papers because it was overflowing. Mephiles glimpsed the shorthand writing on the front of it and moaned to himself quietly, having seen that the folder was all about him. That was his medical records, every last bit of it in the past year, to be exact. Right down to testings and even his behavior evaluations on each visit. And the bills for every bit of damage to the facilities caused by him.

"... Why won't you leave me alone..?" He groaned, having a good idea of what she intended to do with those. "... D-did you even ask for those? That's personal..."

Shela held out a piece of paper with a signature and a bunch of writing.

"I have a warrant to continue my investigation of this particular case." She said in a completely different tone than what she had used with Dark. "And my... what an interesting case you are..."

Mephiles shivered.

"... What case? Wasn't that t-tape enough evidence I d-didn't do it..?"

"It seems that most of the surveillance was destroyed by an unexplainable source of heat..."

No one saw Dark's pale face go even paler. He had a good idea of what might have caused that...

To his dismay, his ears were filled with his screams of fright when he had been attacked. He looked up nervously, and realized that he was the only one who could hear it (not that it hadn't been painfully obvious a few seconds prior...), and the image of uncontrolled flames looming over him appeared vividly before his eyes, sending his senses into a blind panic.

Gasping inaudibly because of the sudden loss of his ability to vocalize, Dark took several shaky steps back, feeling a weakness in his legs that made him lean against the wall for support and slide to the floor. He felt like screaming, but his voice was dead in his throat. This was an incredibly horrible feeling to him, and he didn't understand why this was happening now...

Then he blinked and the horrid vision was gone.

Mouth half open in shock and feeling understandably ill, he clutched his hands to his ears, which were no longer filled with the screams. He wanted nothing more now than to just crawl under the blankets of the bed and hide from everything until the feeling passed. He could feel his pale face start to darken from a sudden rise in heat on his muzzle.

"... Dark? What's wrong?"

He looked up and saw Mephiles was kneeling next to him, watching him with concerned eyes.

"_... I tripped..._" Dark lied, not wanting to explain what had happened. "_... That's all... I slipped and fell backwards..._"

"Then why do you look so scared?"

"... _I was caught by surprise?_" Dark forgot to make that seem like a statement and mentally cursed himself for being obvious that he was making this up. He looked at Shela and growled: "_... Don't you have something better to do than harass us?_"

"My, aren't you charming..." The cat said sarcastically. "Something is going on with the two of you that doesn't seem right..."

"_Oh, now... really? You don't say?_"

"Strange that his medical documents goes back to only the past year, while yours are virtually non-existent... in fact... I seem to have trouble finding anything on you..."

Both the hedgehog and the shadow seemed unnerved.

"Now, how does a couple of boys your ages only have so little in your files?" She continued, thumbing through the folder. "No history of vaccinations, no hospitalizations prior to the past year... not even a simple certificate stating your date of birth... it's as if you never existed until now..."

"Stuff gets lost all the time!" Mephiles said quickly. "How many people live in this city and come here? How can you possibly expect everything to stay perfect with so much to look after?"

"Then are you suggesting an error in Dr. Thizon's organization? That would be a very serious predicament for his job... "

"N-no... I mean... Uh... _Oh, geeze..._" Mephiles faded off into horrified silence. He could see what bad could come from information like that.

Dark realized that as well. Again, his classification as the remaining bits of the Scepter of Darkness would drop him back down to the title of an object, not an individual. If word got out, then he could see what would possibly become of him: Locked away in a vault somewhere, cut from any contract, and treated as a dangerous object. The image of himself sitting alone in a corner of a room somewhere, with only his thoughts to keep him company was anything but comforting.

Curse this cat and her investigation.

Suddenly, Dark smirked slyly, startling the cat and the hedgehog as he folded his arms. He bared his teeth a little as if he had something highly amusing in mind.

"What are you so-"

"_SHE'S GOING THROUGH PRIVATE FOLDERS!_" Dark shouted loud enough to reach every corner of this floor, pointing at Shela like a little child who had just saw their older sibling steal from the cookie jar. "_She said she was going to look through mine too! Who else's could she have looked at by now?_"

Nearly every head turned to where they were and stared. Mephiles caught on quickly.

"She's got mine right now!" He joined in with Dark, also pointing. "She said she'd look through it and find what she can use against me! She's not very nice!"

After actions were taken, and the flustered cat was seized by Security, though repeating again and again that she was part of the authorities, even holding up her badge, Shela was dragged out of the premises while Mephiles was holding his medical folder that had been dropped.

"Wow... I've never seen anyone get tackled like that before..." He tried hard not to laugh as Dark stuck his tongue out and waved at her through the window, only enraging the cat more as Dark laughed. "That was quick thinking..."

"_It was either that, or we'd have a serious problem on our hands..._" Dark them went into explaining about what would have happened as Mephiles pulled him to his feet.

"Yikes... that's terrible! And you have even less evidence of existence than I do..." Mephiles said with wide eyes before walking with Dark over to Thizon to return his folder. "I guess the best we can do now is just start documenting things now and act as if the rest was just lost in a fire or something... That's believable..."

"_You're forgetting that neither of us look like standard Mobians..._" Dark said flatly. "_It's going to be hard to blend in if every part of us stands out like a neon sign..._"

"We'll be flukes then... I'm sure that happens naturally..."

"_And the crystals and eyes?_"

"... Close contact with Chaos energy at a young age. Chaos mutations... Chaos can cause anything, even worse than what we've got..." Mephiles said, thinking about it as he spoke.

"_So you'd rather be considered mutated?_"

"If it'll keep us safe... yes... even if I do hate my claws..." Mephiles nodded, looking at his hands and feet. "... I wonder if I'm going to have these until the day I die..? I wonder how great it is to be able to set your hands down on something and not have to worry about them ruining it..?"

Dark held his hands up too, nearly identical, save for the still thinned appearance of the wrists that Dark was still recovering from.

"_... Mine have already done that... Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of what they can and have caused..._" Dark curled his fingers towards his palm to keep the sharp ends away from everything. "_How about we wonder that together..?_"

"Know what I really wonder?" Mephiles said with a curious smile, looking up at the ceiling. "What would I look like without them? Would I still be blue? I kinda like brown better... natural hedgehog color, y'know?"

"_... Hmm..._"

"You gonna tell me what happened, though?" Mephiles switched subjects quickly, jarring Dark from his thoughts. "I know you... you don't just 'trip'. You looked like you saw a ghost."

"_Ghosts don't exist..._"

"Can't be too sure... after what we just had happen... I'm willing to believe anything..."

"_You _would_ believe anything..._" Dark shot back.

"Alright... maybe a little..." Mephiles face darkened a bit from awkwardness. "But I'm serious... you didn't look well for a moment..." He scanned his eyes over Dark a couple times, trying to read whatever it was he was looking for. Dark's hands still held a certain bit of shakiness, his skin still glistening with a thin layer of sweat under his fur in some places under the light above them, the occasional swallow after several breathes of air, his eyes refusing to hold eye contact for very long. "Something startled you... what happened?"

"_... N-nothing..._" Dark lied.

Mephiles didn't buy it.

"It doesn't seem like 'nothing' to me if you were trying to tear your ears off like that."

Immediately in confusion, Dark's hands flew to his ears and touched them with his fingers, realizing that they felt a bit sore, possibly from being pulled at.

"_... I-I wasn't... I didn't..._" He tried to make up a story for that as well, and faded off, finding himself running dry of logical excuses. What was the point? The hedgehog was going to keep pestering him until he told him, anyway. He sighed and began to explain as he dropped his eyes to the floor. "_... I... heard something... it was screaming..._"

"I didn't hear anything..." The hedgehog look surprised suddenly. "Are you sure you-?"

"_... It was mine..._"

"..." Mephiles was silent, staring at Dark with wide eyes. He didn't speak for at least a minute. Finally, he responded in a quiet voice: "... Oh..."

Dark looked at him dishearteningly. "_I saw something too..._"

Mephiles didn't need to ask what. He held the large folder under his arm as the both of them stopped several doors away from Dark's assigned room, and placed his free hand on Dark's shoulder.

"... It's going to be a while before it starts to fade..." He said softly. "... I might not be able to see and hear what you do... but I know I can feel it... I'll understand... Really..."

Dark automatically reached up and brushed his hand off without thinking. Mephiles didn't pay much mind to that action... after all, it was an old habit, and Dark didn't normally enjoy the idea of physical contact, finding that it sort of softened the tough outward appearance he had wanted. In an odd way, it sort of pleased Mephiles to see that not all of the Dark he knew before all this was lost. Or maybe that was part of Dark all along, and the rest of him was finally found...

Dark looked at him again and said with a hint of humor: "_Only because you'll keep pestering me until I tell..._"

"It's the only way you'll do it, it seems..."

"_Speaking of pestering..._" Dark started to change the subject. _"Are you ever going to tell me what happened with Iblis?_"

"Dark, I told you 'another time'..." Mephiles sighed. This was probably the fifth time today he was asked.

"_You've been telling me that for two weeks now..._" Dark frowned, narrowing his eyes as he held up two fingers in a rather annoyed fashion. "_Two. Fourteen days. A fortnight. Half a month._"

"And you'll wait longer if you keep this up." Mephiles shook his head. "I'll tell you when I think it's the best time. You've got a lot to worry about right now... I'm not pushing another on you..."

"_Did something bad happen? Did he say anything? Did it start raining? What?_"

"No. For the love of-I said no." Mephiles shook his head again. "I'm not going to even give hints, because I don't want to lead you to believe something that didn't happen, and you get upset thinking I lied to you or something."

"_You not telling is just as bad as lying._"

"Is not."

Dark groaned frustratedly.

"_I'll find out, y'know..._" He added with the air of someone who was putting together a clever way to get what they wanted to know.

"Yeah... when I _tell_ you." Mephiles tossed back in a half teasing kind of way. That only fueled Dark's persistence.

* * *

"_When am I getting out of here..?_" Dark frowned. "_Everyday, you get to leave, and I'm stuck here alone until everyone comes back... Heck, I bet my cat is having all his milestones without me!_"

"Well, you're still recovering..."

"_Am not..._"

"Are, too." Mephiles tossed back. "You won't be able to leave until you're cleared..."

"_Of what, exactly?_" Dark folded his arms. "_I started growing quills again, I'm down to minimal injuries, it seems like everyone has made sure the dirt has been scrubbed out of my fur to the point of making my skin sore, I'm alive, I'm coherent... I'm bored out of my skull..._" He added the last one after a pause. "_A brain like mine needs regular puzzle solving to stay sharp... there is nothing here to do other than watch that television thing, and even at that, there are only a limited number of channels, and I'm sensing a pattern in programming, because the afternoon schedule consists of fictional characters whining about their lives being overly dramatic, the early ones are mostly trying to sell some rather useless item, the mid-morning is a bunch of ridiculous game shows, and one channel is all about weather where _I'm _not at, nor do I care, honestly, because that does not involve me directly, and-_"

"Bit grouchy, I see..."

"_I just explained why!_" Dark snapped loudly. "_You can't tell me that that wouldn't annoy you either!_"

"Look, they said that you could leave once they approve." Mephiles explained. "That means that you have to be well enough that we wouldn't need doctors' help for the rest of the recovering. And harassing everyone won't help it any faster..."

"_I wasn't harassing anyone..._" Dark said slowly, knowing what was going to be said.

"You took the pen light from Dr. Thizon and tried flashing it in his eyes..." Mephiles said flatly, looking at him skeptically as he folded his arms. "This morning..."

Not only that, Dark had even gotten a little hostile and started shouting "_How do you like it! Huh?_" and anything of the like as everyone else tried to restore order in the room.

"_... I don't like light being shone in my eyes..._" Dark acted as if he had done nothing wrong, and that Mephiles was overlooking an important detail. "_... And I really hate bright ones... it hurts my eyes..._"

"That doesn't make it alright to do the same to someone else... especially if their sole job is to help people who are hurt, like you..."

"_I'm tired of being helped..._" Dark muttered, lowering his head a little as he inhaled deeply.

"I know you must be, but that's just how we do things around here..." Mephiles explained. "Don't think of it like that... think of it as... eh... well, you're not having to be around Shadow right now... that's a good thing, right?"

Dark grunted.

"_... Still hate it here..._" He glared. "_And realistically, I can easily just walk right out of here, and no one can really do anything to sop me..._"

"If that's the case, then why haven't you?" Mephiles raised his ears up a bit in curiosity.

"_... I have my reasons..._" Dark didn't want to admit that he would have no idea what to do next if he _did _walk out. "_Besides... at least I don't have to sleep on the floor here..._"

"Shadow has to, too..."

"_And you get the couch because..?_"

"Rouge has the bed..."

"_Because..?_"

"It was her house to begin with... and her and Shadow pay for the place... so I would think Rouge gets a say in who sleeps where..." Mephiles shrugged. "I really don't mind not having a room... I don't have too many things, and I practically get to control the TV, since I have the couch. Better than wood shavings and cloth shreds, I tell you..." The hedgehog grinned at that last one, recalling vaguely how quite some time ago, when he was small, the shavings and shreds used to get worked into his quills and even wrap a few bits around some single ones, which he used to find irritating.

"_Wood shavings? I can't imagine..._" Dark said slowly, under the impression that they might have been a bit splintery (having never seen wood bedding for small mammals before, due to never having been to a place that sells them (or any other store for that matter...)). Shoving that slight mental image aside, he said: "_Either you get me out of here, or I leave myself..._"

"Or, you could wait until they release you when they say you're ready..."

Dark grunted in response.

* * *

Well, I had to drop Shela in again. Looks like she might be a minor antagonist in the future, what with her obsession with finding out the deal behind our two not nearly real hegehogs boys and all. I couldn't pass up Dark causing a scene to get her thrown out, either. XD

Shela is supposed to be like a cross between Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter, that horrible horrible ATF lady in that TV-MA rated show "Sons of Anarchy" (I recommend that only for those about 17 and up... even my mom likes that show, which really threw me for a loop O_O ), and every other character of the like that causes trouble, but you can't help but agree that every series needs one like them to balance out things.

As a side note, she's also quite linked to Thizon's past, at one point, I'm considering dropping that she used to go to school with him, and has held a grudge over several trivial things against him. XD

This chapter didn't quite flow the way I wanted, but maybe it gets tied up in the next chapter. I really hope so...


	41. Not Again!

Well... last Chapter... but it's a bit short. But it sets the premise for the next story...

* * *

A few days later, Dark had been released from the hospital with the only thing they wanted from him was to check in every weekend for the next month to monitor his adjustment to things as well as make sure his injuries had healed completely. He wasn't looking forward to it at all...

When they got back home, he was surprised to find that Tape had grown to look like a miniature version of what an adult cat would look like, his fluff sleeking out and showing the the fur on his body was short hair, while the tail fur was long. The hair on his ears were long at the tips as well.

Tape sat down in his way and looked up at him, sounding out the loudest howling mewl from a cat anyone had ever heard from such a small little guy, as if he was scolding Dark for being away for so long. Mephiles couldn't help but laugh, especially when Dark's face blushed a bit and he looked away awkwardly from being yelled at by a cat.

Tape rubbed his face against Dark, and purred, making Dark's face darken an even deeper shade of red.

"He's just saying how much he missed you..." Mephiles explained as Dark quickly snatched the cat off the ground to try and encourage him to stop mewing so loudly, which, having all eyes on him, made Dark almost visibly embarrassed to be petting the cat in full view of anyone. "Aw, c'mon... he's just doing what cats do..."

"_... Must he do that now, of all times..?_" Dark mumbled, not once making eye contact. "_He's got all the time he needs for the rest of his life with me... why now..?_"

"Well... probably because he loves you..."

Almost immediately, Dark shoved the cat into Mephiles' arms, wide eyed and pale faced. Leaving everyone confused with his reaction, he disappeared quickly down the hall and slammed the garage/storage room door shut, Mephiles looking at Shadow and Rouge confusedly as he placed Tape back on the ground and tilted his head.

"I'll be right back..." He said slowly, taking off after Dark.

He pushed the door open and slipped into the room, finding Dark sitting on the ground, hands gripping the opposite arms just below the shoulder, body curled in on itself, ears folded back, quills puffed out, tail wrapped to his side, eyes scrunched tightly, panting and wheezing quite loudly.

Mephiles looked at him with concern.

"Dark? What's wrong?"

Dark opened an eye and looked at him with great annoyance.

"_... How dare you use that word with me..?_" He huffed, squeezing his eyes shut again. Now he was shuddering. "_... I've never... no one has ever... I don't..._" He then cursed a few times under his breath, and grunted in frustration.

"What? Dark, I-" Mephiles stopped and widened his eyes a bit more. "Oh... I-I'm sorry... it must be so weird to feel that when-"

"_... Weird? No. Alien is more like it... non existent is more accurate..._" Dark frowned and bared his teeth. "_Never having experienced it... it's borderline terrifying to me..._"

"It scares you?"

"_... I don't know what it's doing... and that's why I'm freaking out..._" Dark toppled over onto his side as he tried to curl up more.

"It's not meant to hurt you..." Mephiles said, carefully reaching a hand out to put on his shoulder, which was slapped away. "It's supposed make you feel better. It has millions of variants, but it all supposed to be basically the same." He drooped his ears. "... You mean that you've never once felt an emotional attachment to something before..? Not for wanting to use it... but just because you like being around it?"

"_... In that sense... it would seem like you'd be implying that I'm in love with..._" Dark looked a little horrified of the idea as he trailed off.

Mephiles' eyes went wide and he shook his head quickly when he realized what Dark thought."No! Not _in _love! That's like... Shadow and Rouge!"

"_What?_" Mephiles heard Rouge shout from down the hall, no doubt that she had been hearing this all with her good hearing, Shadow, no doubt, looking at her in confusion.

"No... I meant like, brotherly. As friends. Like... well... in that case, it's another word for 'caring deeply about'." Mephiles' face was a bit pink from the awkward direction this conversation almost went. "Like... when you almost died... I was scared that we wouldn't be able to save you. So much... that I fought myself from fainting from seeing how... hurt you were. I almost got myself really hurt because I was trying too much passed my limits to try and heal you..."

"... _You should never try to go passed your limits if it hurts you..._" Dark said slowly.

"But it worked... you didn't die..." Mephiles gave a small smile.

"_... Am I really worth it..?_"

"To me..? Yes..."

"_... Why?_"

"Because you're my friend... and my brother..."

"... _Not real brothers though..._" Dark seemed a bit sad by this.

"... Does it really matter?" Mephiles raised his ears. "We might as well be..."

"_... How is it that... you, not even related to me... care about me more than my own other half did..?_"

Mephiles looked away for a moment, then sighed.

"... He didn't really hate you, Dark..." He said softly, Dark's eyes going wide. "... He was just insane. The unlucky one... he might have been glad that you weren't as affected by the experiments as he was..."

"... _No... he hated me... he tried to kill me..._" Dark shook his head, eyebrow raised. "_... When he changed... he never once cared about me again... he said so himself... not once..._"

"What people say and what they do can be contradicting..." Mephiles looked up at him.

"_... What do you mean..?_"

"Would you like to know what happened to him..?"

Dark was quiet. He had waited weeks for this moment of truth. Weeks of pestering... and now... he wasn't sure if he was really ready.

But Mephiles was offering information! This was what he was waiting for!

Looking away, he nodded slowly.

Mephiles inhaled softly.

"He... burned out."

"_What?_"

"He was a fire. He said you were meant to outlive him anyway..."

"..."

"And when he saw how close you got to actually dying... he just gave the Emeralds back to us, and told me to use them to put all of the energy he took from you back... I think seeing how far he had gone snapped some sense into him before he let himself disappear..."

"_... How can you be sure that he actually cared..?_" Dark said in a challenging kind of way.

"... Because..." Mephiles said sadly. "... He told me to make up a story or whatever I wanted if you wanted to hear the truth... I think he thought what really happened would break your heart even more..."

"_... But you didn't lie..?_"

"No... because I knew that would just make it worse when you find out the truth..." Mephiles lowered his head before looking up. "... I think that really deep down... he did care... but his insanity got in the way of it... I'm sorry, Dark..."

Dark looked at him disbelievingly, scanning his narrowed eyes across his face to try and pick up any hints of lying. Nothing...

Then his eyes went wide, and he sighed deeply, small tears collecting in the edges of his eyes. He gave a weak laugh.

"... _That's all I wanted to know..._" He said softly.

His sniffle caught the hedgehog by surprise and he caught Mephiles in an almost bone crushing hug. Which is not exaggerating, since Dark had a pretty high amount of physical strength.

"Dark... ow... S-stop..." Mephiles said in a strained voice, wincing as he was worried that a rib might crack. "... Dark... gentler... p-please... ah... ow..."

"_... I... love you, brother..._"

"I love you, too... but... seriously... my spine... ow..."

"_... Oh... right... sorry..._" Dark let go of him and looked away awkwardly.

Mephiles gasped deeply once he was let go, and looked at him before smiling smally again.

"Feel better, now?"

"_... I dunno... do I?_"

"Yep..." Mephiles got to his feet and grabbed his hand to pull him up. "Now... I think you've got a cat you just ran out on... he hasn't seen you in weeks... you should go say 'hi' to him..." Dark grunted something about embarrassment, and Mephiles scoffed as he led him back to the living room: "Who cares? If you worry about what people think, you'll never have any fun..."

As Dark picked up his cat and disappeared into the kitchen to be away from anyone's eyes anyway, Mephiles rolled his eyes, knowing that it would be a while before Dark was used to it.

"Y'know, Meph..." Shadow said. "We're very proud of you... you've really grown up quite a bit during this whole deal..."

"You really think so..?" Mephiles laughed as his quills got a bit ruffled by Shadow. "Aw... thanks!" He looked up. "Y'know... why don't you and Rouge just get married or something? Then you guys could adopt me, and... and we could be like... you could be like... my dad or something." Then he gasped excitedly as Shadow and Rouge looked at him in a mix of bewilderment and shock. "Oh! What if you guys had a kid? Then I'd have a baby brother or sister! Wouldn't that be great? Then we'd be a _real _family!"

After a few moments of silence, Shadow was the first to speak.

"Yeah... Rouge... why don't we?"

"Because you're still sleeping on the floor until I say so!" Rouge smacked him in the back of the head for what felt like the umpteenth time. Then she smacked him again. And again. And again...

"Hey, Shadow... How come you never hit her back?" Mephiles tilted his head.

"Because-Ow! It's not-Ah! Alright for boys-Geeze! To hit-Hey! Girls! Gah! Stop it!"

"Even if they hit you?"

"Ye-Geeze, Rouge! I was just kidding!"

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." Mephiles said to no one in particular, giggling to himself out of silliness. "The Ultimate Lifeform..."

"_And his girlfriend who has him by the quills!_" Dark chimed in from the other room.

The both of them broke out into loud laughter.

Then the doorbell rang. It was Sonic.

"Hey, Shadow... is this a bad time?" He said quickly.

"Yes..."

"Funny..." Sonic rolled his eyes as he tapped his foot impatiently. "Listen... Eggman is out in space right now doing something I just _know _is bad..."

"Then go stop him yourself... we just got home from out own adventure..." Shadow got ready to close the door, but Sonic shoved his foot in the way.

"Yeah. Alright then... I'm sure I can handle this myself..." Sonic said impatiently as a yellow-orange twin tailed young fox looked at him disapprovingly.

"Shadow! You _know_ Eggman is never up to anything good when he's building something in space!" The fox said desperately. "Remember the Eclipse Cannon? Both times? And-"

"Tails... he's just going to be a jerk about it like always..." Sonic shook his head. "Look... Let's just get to the point. Our Emerald Radar is telling us that all of the Emeralds are in this house right here. We need them. This would cut a lot of time in half and then some if you just give them to me so I can kick Egg-butt's... butt... wow... that sounded so much cooler in my head..."

"You just want the Emeralds?" Mephiles said suddenly, every head turning to him. "Well, why didn't you just say so? You can have them! Most of them are nothing but trouble with me!" He grabbed the backpacks and dumped them out on the ground in front on them. "Especially this red one! I hate that one!"

"_I _like_ the red one!_" Dark almost whined. "_Can't we-_"

"NO!" Shadow, Rouge and Mephiles all said at once, making Dark cringe and duck back into the kitchen and out of sight.

"Really? We just get them?" Sonic said incredulously. "That's easy? Wow... thanks! Let's go, buddy!" He scooped up what he could as Tails picked up the rest and the both of them disappeared with a mix of super speed and tail induced flight.

"Did... did that two tailed fox just fly..?" Mephiles stared after them.

"Yes... that was Tails..."

"That kid you said that has that workshop in the Mystic Ruins?"

"Yep... the one that's Sonic's best friend..." Shadow nodded.

"..." Mephiles looked away. "Well, at least we can just stay home now..." He sighed.

At least a half an hour later, there was what felt like an earthquake. A short one. The power went out shortly, then as it flickered back on, Rouge switched the TV on to find a news station.

"Apparently... the Earth... just split apart..."

"Let me guess..." Shadow glared at the TV. "Eggman?"

"Sources say..."

"Y'know what! Just let Sonic take care of this! He's due for some world saving anyway! _We _just got back from our own, and we didn't even get a mention in the news at all!"

"Because no one really knows..." Mephiles said slowly. "That's good, really... I'd hate to get a lot of publicity... I like it better when I'm not under a spotlight..."

"But everyone is starting to think I'm lazy!" Shadow countered. I drop out of sight for about a year, and it's like I didn't do anything..."

"You want attention? Go help Sonic..." Rouge said as Shadow looked annoyed at the idea. "No? Then shut up..."

"Who cares? He's going to get the credit anyway..."

"Gee... you sound a bit bitter, Shadow..." Mephiles added.

"Hrrrm..." Shadow grunted and folded his arm, sticking his nose in the air. "Just let the faker take care of everything... I just want a cup of tea..."

"I'll take coffee!" Mephiles chimed in excitedly.

Dark, on the other hand, who was listening in on everything, seemed a little nervous about the state of the planet.

_... That Human wouldn't be stupid enough to try _that_... would he..?_ He thought to himself. _The last thing we need right now is for that... thing to be loose..._

He shook his head as he petted his cat.

_Given the odds... I'm hoping not... I'm not in the mood... _He fretted._  
_

* * *

Wow... ten days shy of being two years in the making.

What an epic this was.

I'm sad that this had to come to a close, after working so much on this, and how we all had fun and stuff T_T

Here's to hoping we get the same feeling with the next story!

For those who want hints, poke around my DA for some concepts.

The pending name ideas, as help from some readers, are "Shift", "Flux" and "Eclipse", as it will crossover slightly with Sonic Unleashed. In fact... this little ending is referencing the very same game's beginning. ^^

Until then... see ya later! ^^


End file.
